Burning
by Celebrian-Gladiola-Elwyn
Summary: I'm really bad at summaries but I'll try. A partially precocious girl in her 5th year at Hogwarts must deal with all the drama of adolescence during the Triwizard Tournament and she begins to have feelings for one of her friends, Fred Weasley.
1. Chapter 1

I walked into the Entrance Hall, taking in all of its glory. The four giant hourglasses that showed House point scores stood in a row on the same wall as the front doors. The bottom of each one was empty, the symbol of a new year at Hogwarts

.

Man I loved this place. I felt comfortable here; I actually fit in. Of course I missed my family, but that was the only downside to boarding school. And with 24/7 owl mail, I could communicate with them easily.

I was soaked. It was raining heavily outside and even the charm to repel water that I had tried had little effect. A large red water balloon landed on my head; dousing me with still more water.

"PEEVES!" I shouted. The poltergeist merely cackled and zoomed away to bother some third year Hufflepuffs.

My stomach growled. I was so hungry and I couldn't wait to get into the Great Hall and begin feasting. Of course, I would have to wait through the opening speeches. With my two friends, Katie Bell and Sarah Norduff, at my sides, we walked into the brightly lit Great Hall. Many students had arrived already, but the tables were not full yet. My friends and I were still able to get fairly decent seats in the middle of the Gryffindor table. Broad empty platters sat in front of us, seeming to tease me with their lack of food.

A couple seats down from us, Lee Jordan and the Weasley twins took their seats. They were laughing about one thing or another. Fred shook his hair like a wet dog, showering everyone in the vicinity with water droplets. I laughed. He caught my eye.

"Good summer Rachel?" He asked, grinning that Weasley grin of his. I giggled inwardly but kept my cool.

"Yeah, not bad." I replied smiling. "But it's good to be back." Fred nodded.

"Yeah, George and I have got a bunch of new material to try out." He said. I put on a mock serious face. "Now Mr. Weasley, we're going to behave ourselves this year aren't we? You wouldn't want to be put in detention would you?" He laughed, as did I. We both knew that detention didn't bother him or George in the slightest, but I was pleased that I could make him laugh. He turned back to his friends and I to mine.

My friends were smirking at me.

"What?" I asked, in an attempt to sound perplexed.

"You so like him!" Sarah accused, still smirking.

"Do not!" I protested. Yes, it was true. I did like Fred. But I had never admitted it out loud. Of course, my friends just knew, but I always tried to deny it. We all knew I wasn't fooling them. Before my friends could continue to argue with me, the hall fell silent and we all looked up to the front, in front of the high table. On a stool sat a ripped and worn old hat. A seam in its front opened like a mouth and words poured out from it. The Sorting Hat began its song.

(I won't post the song. If you really want to read it, go look in Book 4 on page 176)

After the Hat finished its song, the Hall burst into applause. It always came up with really creative songs and I loved listening to them. But the sorting itself was never very interesting. I blanked out on that. I usually did. Instead, I began daydreaming. Yep, you guessed it. About Fred.

Fred was so cool. He was really funny of course but he was also smart, even though he misbehaved. He just liked to cause trouble. Fred and I were friends, even though he was a year ahead of me. You see, I was technically in my fifth year at Hogwarts, except that when I was younger, my mother had tutored me in several subjects, so I was precocious when I got to school. I was bumped ahead in some of my classes. Some, I was still with the fifth years, but in some I joined the sixth years, which was where I got to know Fred and George.

Of course, being moved ahead in school did make me subject to various taunts of 'nerd' and 'brainiac', but I tried not to let it bother me. It was great, because this year, for OWLs, I would have another year's experience in some subjects. So I was willing to make the sacrifice.

So I had my fifth year friends, which was mostly just Sarah and Katie, but I did get along with the others. Then I had my sixth year friends, who consisted mostly of Fred, George, Lee, and Angelina Johnson. Lee and I were friendly; we always got along and had our share of laughs. Angelina was really nice and helpful when I got moved up to harder classes, so I immediately became friends with her. And then George and I were really good friends. George and Fred were just as amazing, but I had never been able to see George as anything more than a brother. Then there was Fred.

I had begun liking Fred in my third year when he tricked one of the teachers to postponing a major test that I hadn't studied for at all and I was doomed to fail. But Fred got it moved back and gave me extra time to study. Then he helped me learn all of the stuff I needed to know that night. He was always really sweet and stuff. On top of him being smart, funny, brave, and good-looking, he was perfect.

All of a sudden, the plates in front of me were filled with delicious food, everything from mashed potatoes to what looked like fried reindeer antlers. I tried everything, yes even the antlers. Hey, I wasn't picky, just hungry.

There wasn't much conversation, people were too intent on eating at first, but after a while, people started talking about various things. Most people discussed who the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher would be. Nobody had a clue. A couple seats down, I could hear my some of my underclassmen friends (yes I had underclassmen friends too) Harry, Ron, and Hermione discussing what sounded like house elves.

Soon, the Headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore, got to his feet. Soon everyone fell quiet, waiting to hear what he had to say.

"So!" he said, smiling at us. "Now that we are all fed and watered, I must once more ask for your attention, while I give out a few notices. Mr. Filch, the caretaker, has asked me to tell you that the list of objects forbidden inside the castle has this year been extended to include Screaming Yo-yos, Fanged Frisbees, and Ever-Bashing Boomerangs. The full list comprises of some 437 items, I believe and can be viewed in Mr. Filch's office, if anybody would like to check it." I could have sworn I saw Dumbledore give us a small smile before he continued.

"As ever, I would like to remind you all that the forest on the grounds is out-of-bounds to students, as is the village of Hogsmeade to all below third year."

"It is also my painful duty to inform you that the Inter-House Quidditch Cup will not take place this year."

Cries of surprise and anger had filled the hall. Katie, who was a Chaser on the Gryffindor team let out an indignant yelp. Fred and George were mouthing soundlessly at Dumbledore. I heard Harry gasp "What!?" and I myself pounded the table slightly in annoyance. I had been practicing my Keeping all summer in hopes that, now that Oliver Wood had left the school, I would have a chance of making the team as Keeper. No chance now. Once the noise had settled slightly, Dumbledore continued.

"This is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teacher's time and energy- but I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely. I have great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts-.." and at that moment, the doors of the Great Hall burst open, revealing a man standing there. He was dripping wet and he was wearing an old traveling cloak. The room fell silent. He had a long mane of grey hair that was extremely grizzled. All heads faced the man. He began approaching the High table. A dull clunk was made with each step that the man made and I saw a peg leg from underneath his robes. I wondered what had happened to it and my imagination provided me with horrid answers.

His face was scarred horribly and had a menacing look on it. A large chunk was missing from his nose and while one eye was dark and beady, the other was large and electric blue. It was wildly spinning in all directions. His mouth was lopsided and this man did not look very pleasant.

The man reached Dumbledore, and they shook hands. Then he sat in an empty chair up at the High Table. I knew who this man was. My mother had told me about him. He was none other than Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody.

"May I introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher? Professor Moody." Dumbledore intoned brightly, breaking the silence. It was customary for new staff additions to receive applause, but only Hagrid and Dumbledore put their hands together. It seemed that everyone else was too stunned to move.

Suddenly, whispers filled the hall.

"What happened to his face?"

"Where d'ya reckon he got that peg leg?"

"He doesn't look too friendly does he?"

Dumbledore cleared his throat to catch everyone's attention and the continued his speech.

"As I was saying, we are to have the honor of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, an event that has not been held for over a century. It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year."

"You're JOKING!" Fred said loudly. Everyone laughed, especially me. Dumbledore chuckled as well.

"I am _not_ joking Mr. Weasley, though now that you mention it, I did hear an excellent one over the summer about a troll, a hag, and a leprechaun who all go into a bar…" and the Professor McGonagall cleared her throat noisily.

"Er- but maybe this is not the time…no…" said Dumbledore. I chuckled. Dumbledore was always so amusing.

"Where was I? Ah yes, the Triwizard Tournament. Well, some of you will not know what the tournament involves, so I hope this that do know will forgive me for giving a short explanation, and allow their attention to wander freely."

Dumbledore proceeded to explain the Triwizard Tournament after that.

(Authors Note: Okay guys, I don't know if you noticed, but up till now, Dumbledore's script has pretty much stayed true to the books. But I'm pretty sure that anyone who's reading this will know about the Triwizard tournament and how it works. I'm not gonna type it all out, so if you don't know how it works, I suggest you look in the books or ask someone else.)

Dumbledore explained to us that the Triwizard Tournament consisted of three schools. Each school had a single champion selected from all of its students. The other two schools, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, would arrive later in October and the champion selection would take place shortly after that, by an impartial judge. The prize for winning the tournament, which consisted of three very dangerous tasks, was 1000 galleons.

"I'm going for it!" I heard Fred whisper, and I seriously hoped he was selected. I would love to cheer him on in the tournament.

"Eager though I know all of you will be to bring the Triwizard Cup to Hogwarts, the heads of the participating schools, along with the Ministry of Magic, have agreed to impose an age restriction on contenders this year. Only students who are of age- that is to say, 17 years or older- will be allowed to put forth their names for consideration. This" Dumbledore had raised his voice to speak over several angry outburst and furious glares from the Weasleys. "is a measure we feel is necessary, given that the tournament tasks will still be difficult and dangerous, whatever precautions we take, and it is highly unlikely that students below sixth and seventh year will be able to cope with them. I will personally be ensuring that no underage student hoodwinks our impartial judge into making them Hogwarts champion." At this Dumbledore glanced over at the Weasley's both who still wore furious expressions on their faces. "I therefore beg you not to waste your time submitting yourself if you are under seventeen."

"The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving in October and remaining with us for the greater part of this year. I know that you will all extend every courtesy to our foreign guests while they are with us, and will give your whole-hearted support to the Hogwarts champion when he or she is selected. And now, it is late, and I know how important it is to you all to be alert and rested as you enter your lessons tomorrow morning. Bedtime! Chop chop!" and with that Dumbledore sat down and began to converse with Mad Eye Moody. Many students got up and made their way to the entrance hall where they would make their way to their dormitories.

"They can't do that! We're seventeen in April! Why can't we have a shot?" George intoned, still shooting furious glances at the headmaster

"They're not stopping me entering! The champions'll get to do all sorts of stuff you'd never be allowed to do normally. And a thousand galleons prize money!" I heard Fred say stubbornly. But soon I was ushered forward with Katie and Sarah by a group of impatient third years. I seriously hoped that Fred would find some way of entering, although I found it highly unlikely. Dumbledore was not about to be fooled by two teenage wizards.

Katie led the way upstairs and when we got to the portrait of the Fat Lady, it was Sarah who had the password.

"I got it from one of the prefects," she explained, before she turned to the picture and spoke. "Balderdash." The portrait swung open and we all climbed through the hole in the wall to find the familiar Gryffindor Common room. It was exceedingly comfortable with squashy armchairs and sofas everywhere. There were several tables for students to do work at and a blazing fire was lit in the corner. However, being tired, all three of us did not linger but walked up to our dormitory. Our trunks had already been brought up and we all changed into our dressing gowns. I pulled the hangings of my four-poster bed shut and was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

I woke up the next morning to find sunlight streaming into the room. Glancing at my clock, I saw that I was extremely late if I wanted to fill up on breakfast before classes. Why hadn't Sarah or Katie woken me?

My dorm was already empty, so I dressed and ran down to the common room, nearly tripping down the steps as I did.

The common room was nearly empty. I was there of course, and one other person was there. It was none other than Fred Weasley. He was furiously trying to tie his trainers as he hopped across to the portrait hole.

"Fred!" I called out to him. Startled, he fell over in mid hop. I giggled and rushed over to help him up. Most boys would have turned red. Fred however, was laughing. That's what I loved about him. He wasn't afraid to laugh at himself.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, cheers" he answered as I pulled him to his feet.

"I guess you're late too?" I asked.

"Yeah, George didn't wake me, git." He said bitterly. I laughed.

"Well, we better get down to the Great Hall if we want to have time for breakfast." I said. He nodded and we climbed through the portrait hole, walking down the corridor at a brisk pace. Just me and Fred. But my stomach gave an unpleasant lurch. I had no idea what I would say to him.


	2. Chapter 2

Fred and I walked at a brisk pace, neither of us really saying anything. Finally, I plucked up the courage to say something.

"So, what did you do this summer?" I asked, trying to sound friendly. He shrugged.

"Eh, not much. My family got tickets to the Quidditch World Cup so that was pretty cool. So we went to that. Hermione Granger and Harry Potter went with us too. Did you go?" he asked turning his head towards me. I shook my head.

"No, but don't I wish? My parents took me to Germany at the time. I would have rather seen the world cup, but my mom has some business to go to and they didn't want to leave me by myself for three weeks. I heard about it though, sounded amazing." I said, a bit glumly. Ireland was my team, and I had really wanted to see them play against Bulgaria.

"Yeah it was. It's a shame you didn't get to see it. How was Germany?" he asked politely.

"Fine," I replied. "Dull though. We went to Berlin. My parents went out a lot so I just hung out by myself. You're lucky you have siblings." I informed him. He laughed.

"Maybe, but sometimes you hate them just as much as you love them. Take Percy. He's a prat, and deserves everything George and I dish to him." He said. I laughed.

"Really? And what exactly to you dish to him?" I asked curiously. He wagged his finger at me.

"Uh Uh Uh! Percy's our guinea pig, and if we gave away our new tricks, where would the fun be?" he said, grinning mischievously. I chuckled.

"I'm not sure, but I bet you guys'd find it." I said encouragingly. He smiled.

"You'd probably win that bet," Then a dark look flashed across his face. But I thought it must have been a trick of the light, because the next second, his grin was back in place. "Even so, I'd best not take chances."

We'd arrived at the Great Hall at that moment. We bade each other goodbye and both went to go sit with our respective friends. Sarah and Katie were sitting at the middle of the table, finishing up what looked like the remains of scrambled eggs.

"Hey! Why didn't you guys wake me up?" I asked indignantly. They looked around at me, confused.

"We did! But I guess you fell back asleep." I felt a pink tinge appear on my cheeks as I realized the likeliness of their words.

"Oh well. I'm here just in time for a quick bite, aren't I?" But looking at my watch, I realized that I only had 10 minutes. Sarah handed me a schedule.

"McGonagall asked me to give this to you." She explained. I looked over it as I bit into a piece of buttered toast.

Monday-

Herbology-5th

History of Magic-6th

Lunch

Defense Against the Dark Arts-6th

Care of Magical Creatures-5th

Tuesday-

Ancient Runes-6th

Charms-6th

Lunch

Double Transfiguration-5th

Wednesday-

Double Potions-6th

Lunch

History of Magic-6th

Care of Magical Creatures-5th

Thursday-

Double Defense Against the Dark Arts-6th

Lunch

Herbology-5th

Charms-6th

Friday-

Transfiguration-5th

Potions-6th

Lunch

History of Magic-6th

Charms-6th

Your Astronomy class (5th) will take place on Thursday at midnight at the top of the astronomy tower.

(The numbers next to my classes indicated which year I was having the lessons with.)

I groaned at Wednesday.

"Aw man, Snape, Binns, and nearly getting killed all in one day? Wednesday's gonna be great!" Sarah and Katie gave me looks of sympathy. I stood up from the bench.

"Well, we'd better get going, if we leave now, we'll get to the greenhouses in time. I took my toast along and as we walked out of the entrance hall and across the dewy grounds, I munched on it.

We paused outside the Greenhouses, as Professor Sprout was not yet there. We had Herbology with Slytherins, it seemed. I inwardly sighed. One of the Slytherin's turned towards me and gave me a look of the deepest loathing. It didn't faze me. I was used to it, especially from this boy. He had dark brown hair, almost black, and ice blue eyes. His skin was pale, but not excessively so and he had an average, slightly muscular stature. He was quite good looking.

Well, on the outside, at least.

On the inside he was about as beautiful as a wart-covered toad.

His name was Cole Sanderson. Although he was a Slytherin, he and I had gotten along okay back in our second year. In our third year, he told me that he liked me. I didn't like him like that, although (to the dismay of my fellow Gryffindors) I did consider him a friend. I had to turn him down. He never forgave me. He said that I disrespected him and I wasn't worth his time. That's when I realized he was just like every other Slytherin, vain and arrogant.

I returned his glare with the dirtiest look I could muster. Neither of us broke our focus until Professor Sprout approached our class and let us into greenhouse 2.

We spent the lesson learning about Furlon Pods. They were uninteresting; the lesson consisted of a lot of textbook work. However, the class was littered with menacing glowers from both Cole and myself. We didn't speak however.

As soon as class ended, I followed Sarah and Katie up to the castle. Ick, now was time for History of Magic, the most boring subject in magic history. Ha-ha, wow, that was an unintentional pun.

I left my friends as they went to the dungeons to their Potions class. I had History of Magic with the sixth years, so I began to make my way to the classroom. Soon, I was standing in the room with several sixth years, waiting for the rest of the students to arrive so that Binns could assign us our seats.

Soon, after all of the students had filed in, Binns floated in through the chalkboard, which was not difficult for him, seeing he was a ghost.

"Hello class. Welcome to another year at Hogwarts." He said in a bored, drawling voice. I felt my eyelids begin to grow heavy already.

"I'm going to assign you seats." He said and he began to drift among the rows of desks, pointing to each desk and giving it a name.

"Murray…..Quinn….Lord….Stewart….Fox….Jordan….Johnson….Martin……...Smyth….Weasley….Giordano….Weasley….Harrington." When I heard my name, Harrington, I took the seat that he pointed to, and to my delight, I found myself sitting next to Fred. It seemed too perfect.

Soon Binns was done assigning seats and he moved into the topic of giant wars. I took out a piece of parchment and began to take notes. It was very difficult to resist Binns' tiring drone, but over the years, I had trained myself to resist. I felt something nudge my elbow. Looking down, I saw that it was Fred's quill.

I looked up at him and he subtly nodded towards his parchment which already had a hangman board and a row of blank spaces for letters. I gave him a half exasperated, half amused look and nodded my head towards Binns. My meaning could not have been plainer.

_We have to pay attention. It's only been three minutes and you already lost focus?_

Fred smirked and pointed to himself, the gestured to George who was sitting two seats away from me, and then he flicked his head towards me. It clearly said:

_Of course! I'm Fred. George isn't here to play with me so I'm making that your job._

I sighed, not being able to resist Fred and scratched a letter A into his scrap parchment. Five minutes later, there was a little man hanging from the noose, made to magically wriggle around. Fred was scratching the correct message that I had failed to get into the blank spaces. It said HA HA YOU'LL NEVER GET THIS. SIT WITH ME, GEORGE, AND LEE AT LUNCH?

I smiled to myself and then nodded. Now it was my turn to pick a message. I glanced at him, giving him a look that said _Oh, it's so on now._

Fred returned my look with an expression on his face that said _Bring It!_

An hour and a half later, Binns' droning stopped abruptly. 10 minutes into class, I was no longer trying to divide my attention into my notes and my hangman games with Fred. I was completely ignoring Binns at that point. Next to Fred were full sheets of parchment where our various hangman doodles. It turned out that Fred was much better than me at hangman. He hung me almost every time, and I had only gotten him once when I wrote PERCY IS A DUNGBEETLE.

I remembered Percy from several years ago. I had never been rude to him, he had simply not liked me, for no reason. I suppose he felt that I was too close to Fred and George to be any good. I didn't particularly like or dislike Percy. I was a little irked at his quick judgment, but I didn't hate him. However, I knew how Fred felt, and I thought I would humor him.

He had not gotten that particular message, I suppose because he had not expected me to say it, and when I wrote the correct answer, he had nearly fallen on the floor laughing. Everyone in the room had shot him confused looks, Binns looked thoroughly annoyed and I merely shook my head and smiled. When Fred regained his composure, Binns took five points off of Gryffindor for 'Uncontrollably Disrupting the Class'.

"But sir, if it was uncontrollable, it really wasn't his fault, was it?" Lee Jordan asked. Binns merely sniffed and continued talking about Ulrog the bloodthirsty giant.

At the end of the class, I walked out with Fred, George and Lee.

"Hey mate, what was so funny?" George asked. Fred just laughed.

"Rachel and I were playing hangman, and apparently, Percy is a Dungbeetle. I was not expecting that from her, mostly because she doesn't live with him. George smiled appreciatively. He turned to me and saluted me.

"Too true." He said laughing. I gave them an odd look. I had not thought that it was THAT funny and I felt like I was missing an inside joke. However, feeling that I might not want to know, I let it go.

"Let's go get some lunch. Rachel's gonna join us." Fred said.

"Nice." Lee said.

"We all made our way down to the Great Hall, our first morning at Hogwarts in the new school year, completed.


	3. Chapter 3

I sat down on one of the long benches that were at the Gryffindor table. Fred sat next to me and George and Lee had walked around to sit across from us. I immediately reached for the spaghetti. I'm a spaghetti maniac; it's one of the best things ever in my opinion. So anyway, I reached for it and piled some onto my plate. Then I began to chow down.

So, Lee how was summer?" I said, swallowing a mouthful of pasta.

"Eh not bad. I didn't do much. My dad couldn't get us tickets to the Quidditch world cup, so that sucked." I nodded, understanding the disappointment.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. I was in Germany at the time, so I couldn't go either. Fred says it was good though."

"Yeah, it was really good," George cut in. "We saw some people there. But there was that thing that happened after the Cup. You know, with the Dark Mark."

I nodded. "Yeah, that sounded awful. Those poor muggles." I said.

"Yeah, but they were alright though. They got them down and wiped their memories, so it was okay in the end." Lee said. I stared at him incredulously.

"You think torturing innocent people is alright as long as it's okay in the end?" I asked, appalled at what he had said.

"NO! It- It didn't come out right. What I meant was that, we're lucky that it wasn't worse. I mean, the Dark Mark usually means death, so it's good it wasn't anything worse than what happened." Lee protested. He did seem like he hadn't mean what he said. I nodded slowly. Everything was quiet for a while. When Fred had asked me to sit with him at lunch, I hadn't expected the experience to be awkward in the least. I had expected that Fred and George would be cracking jokes the whole way through. Fred had hardly said anything.

"So, what classes do you guys have this afternoon?" I asked through a mouthful of spaghetti. Fred responded.

"Well, we all have Defense Against the Dark Arts next with Moody. Then we have Transfiguration. What about you?"

"Well like you said, I have Defense Against the Dark Arts next, and after that I have care of Magical Creatures." I said.

Fred, George, and Lee all started laughing. "What?" I asked, very confused.

"Well, you know how Hagrid is with creatures. Goes a little overboard sometimes?" George said. I nodded uncertainly. It was true that sometimes Hagrid didn't choose the best creatures to study, but I rather liked him. Fred continued.

"Yeah, well George and I nipped down there for a looksy yesterday after the feast, you know, to see what you underclassmen are in for. Also, we were kind of curious about what we had managed to avoid. You know, sixth years don't have to take all of their subjects." George then picked up where Fred had left off.

"Yeah, you guys are in for it. He's got big crates of them, all crawling around. Let me tell you, they aren't lookers." George said laughing. I was feeling a little nervous now.

"And what are _they_ exactly?" I asked.

"Well, see, we're not really sure what they are. Never seen anything like em, that's for sure." Fred said.

"We think Hagrid's been doing some illegal breeding." Lee added in.

"Anyway, they're sort of like slugs, but they're definitely more interesting, even if they're not more likeable. I stuck my hand in one of the crates and they attacked me! I didn't think they would be dangerous. Turns out, they can sting you. They can also burn you when their ends explode if you're not careful" Fred held up his left hand which sported some red patches of skin. A horrified expression crept onto my face. He laughed.

"Don't worry, it's not that bad. You should be worrying about yourself. You're gonna have to deal with 'em for the year, and I can happily ignore them forever now." I laughed and made a mental note to avoid these creatures as much as humanly possible.

Professor McGonagall appeared behind George and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Mr. Weasley's, I would like to speak to you alone." She said sternly. He and Fred shrugged, got up from their seats, and followed her into the entrance hall. Lee and I gave each other quizzical looks.

"What d'you think she wants?" I asked.

"Dunno, couldn't tell ya," he answered through a mouthful of ham.

"So, you gonna miss commentating the Quidditch matches this year?" I asked grinning in reminiscence over his spirited commentating.

"Of course! Ah well, I still have next year."

"True." I said nodding.

At that moment, Fred and George returned smirking to themselves. I was eager to know what had happened.

"Hey, what'd McGonagall want?" Lee asked. Fred and George grinned simultaneously.

"Well, it's not like we haven't been expecting it." Fred began.

"Been happening every year since we were 12." George added. Lee also laughed, but I, on the other hand, still felt utterly lost.

"Wait, what?" I asked, perplexed. They turned to me and laughed at the confused expression on my face. I grew indignant.

"Stop laughing!" I cried. "It's not my fault that you guys just automatically know what each other are thinking and I don't!" They laughed harder at that. I scowled.

"It's not that Lee can read our minds Rachel, it's just that he actually uses his brain." Fred joked. I huffed and glared at him.

"Hey we were just joking!" George said, grinning.

"Look, it's just that at the beginning of every year, McGonagall asks us to behave ourselves and to not get into trouble. But for some reason, we just keep forgetting to follow her orders! We must have awful memories, huh George?" Fred asked, smirking.

"Must be." George responded with mock severity.

"In fact, I believe we must have already disobeyed her. Must be a record huh?"

"You know Fred, I think you're right! Well, cheers to a new record!" he said, raising his goblet in toast. I giggled, not being able to stay mad at them.

"And how is that? Is this the 'new material' you mentioned?" I asked.

"You're just going to have to wait and find out!" Fred teased. I pouted and he laughed.

"Don't worry, you won't have to wait long." George told me.

"Yeah, you'll find out next class." Fred said. I gave him a don't-do-anything-stupid look.

"But that's Moody's class." I said.

"Ooh, very observant." Fred said. I ignored that.

"I'd be careful with him. He looks like he's not one to take much crap from students. He's one of the toughest Aurors of all time." George laughed.

"Chill Rachel, calm down. I bet Moody appreciates a good laugh." He said good-naturedly.

"You better hope so." I warned.

"Come now, you're starting to sound like dear Hermione. It's a wonder they didn't make you prefect." George laughed.

"And besides, where's the fun in life without a bit a risk?" intoned Fred, grinning that Weasley grin.

Lee, who had just been smirking at this exchange, brought us back to our senses.

"Actually, we'd better get moving if we want to get to Moody's class on time." Nodding, Fred and George stood up and I followed suit. I exited the Great Hall with them, not knowing what to expect from Moody or from Fred and George.


	4. Chapter 4

**I apologize in advance for the super long pre-message.**

**Hey everyone who's following this story! Sorry it took me so long to get this installment out, I've been super busy. It's Christmas time and I do have a life, as I'm sure you all understand. Thanks so much to whoever reads this! I'm doing it for you guys so please try to be patient when I'm moving slowly! Anyway, I hope you like this one, although, I hope you don't start thinking its boring although you may. See, I've got writers block, which is really weird for me, because I usually know exactly how a story is going to go. Anyway, like I said, I'll try to do my best, but unfortunately I can't make and promises about timeliness or quality (once again. Sorry about that, but I really do intend to try and make it better) Please review, your opinions mean a lot and they help my writing improve so I'll take any comments, good or bad. Okay, I've chatted your ear off enough, on with the story!**

**By the way, Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. I own Sarah and Rachel but no one else.**

Fred, George, Lee and I stood outside the Defense Against the Dark Arts door. We had gotten there early, although Moody hadn't opened the doors yet, so we were forced to stand out in the already drafty corridor. It was strange; it usually took several more months for the temperature to drop. But I suppose we were just in the middle of a cold spell.

"So, what d'ya reckon he's gonna be teaching us?" George said casually, leaning against the stone wall. I shrugged.

"Dunno. Our constantly swapping teachers make it hard to predict." I said simply. Lee nodded in agreement. Fred seemed lost in thought, something which was strange for the usually very talkative boy.

"Fred you okay?" I asked, frowning. He jerked his head up, awakening from his reverie.

"Huh? Oh yeah, fine. I'm just great!" he smirked, clearly hiding something. George laughed, sharing an inside joke. I guessed it was about whatever they were planning for Moody's lesson.

Eventually, more students began to arrive and accumulate outside the corridor. The time for the class to start came and went, but the doors still did not open. We all began to fidget, unsure of what was going on. Where was Moody?

Finally, at quarter after, the door burst open and the figure of Moody stood in the doorway, blue eye whizzing around wildly staring at each of us in turn. His other beady back eye stared menacingly, appraising us.

"My apologies. Something seemed to be wrong with my teaching space. But I've set it straight." He growled. He stepped back to let us enter. Fred and George took two seats in the back and Lee and I sat across the aisle from them, awaiting the start of the lesson.

Moody walked up to the front, his peg leg stumping across the wooden floor. He reminded me of a pirate.

"Alright, I'm Professor Moody as I'm sure you know. You're in your fifth year correct?" asked Captain Moody. Haha.

We all made noncommittal noises of consent and agreement.

"Yes I see. Well, I've reviewed your teachers' curriculums and you're going to be taking your OWL's this year. Well, they're not easy. You're going to work harder than you've ever worked in your life and I mean to help you get your intended OWL's. Unfortunately, your assortment of various teachers mean that your studies have been consistently interrupted, putting you at a serious disadvantage. The thing we'll start with first is hexes. Now who can give me the definition of a hex?"

We were all caught off guard by his swift transition into the lesson. We stared around at the class, waiting for someone to answer the question. Eventually, a girl by the name of Abby Jenkins meekly raised her hand.

"Yes, Miss-,"

"Abby Jenkins, sir, well, uh a hex is not so different from a jinx except that its effects tend to be more irritating and more extreme." She said. Moody nodded.

"Yes, that is partially true; however something you left out is that hexes tend to be more difficult to counteract than other spells. This doesn't hold true always, but it is a pattern to be vigilant of. Now, who can give me an example of a hex?" He asked, turning to the rest of us. Several people raised their hands, I being one of them.

"Yes?" he said, waving vaguely at me.

"Uh, a Stinging Hex, right?" I answered. He nodded.

"That's correct, a Stinging Hex will cause severe stinging pains to the inflicted area. Not pleasant, but still not drastically harmful." He growled. "Anyone else?" Several other people raised their hands, including, to my surprise, George. Fred and George hardly ever contributed in class. Moody called on George.

"The Bat-Bogey Hex." George said bitterly. I almost laughed. It was obvious he had been on the receiving end of one which was no surprise as his younger sister, Ginny Weasley, was infamous for them. Moody nodded.

"Yes, that there is a formidable one. You're a Weasley aren't you?" He said, eyeing the twins' flaming red hair.

"Yes, I'm George Weasley, this is Fred." He answered.

"Your father helped me out of a tight spot a couple days ago." Moody said. It was obvious that it wasn't intended that George answer. We discussed several more hexes before Moody told us to read the chapter in our textbooks on hexes. As we pulled them out of our bags, he turned to copy the hexes that we mentioned on the board.

I, like most people, pulled out my book, as did Lee, but he did not open it. He was watching the Weasley's. I followed suit. They were whispering together, each grasping their own wand under the desk.

"On the count of three." I heard them whisper.

"One."

"Two."

"THREE!" they said, turning to look at the front of the room grinning after waving their wands fluidly. Nothing had happened. Their faces fell. They tried again. Still nothing. I turned to them, confused. What were they trying to do.

"Mr. Weasley's you can quit trying!" Moody barked. They both jumped. Moody had not turned around, but he had known exactly what they were doing.

_It's that eye of his._ I thought to myself.

"No matter how many times you wave your wands, nothing will happen." He said, turning around, fixing half of his beady black stare on them. His other eye was going haywire in its socket of course. Fred and George looked confused and disgruntled for a moment but covered it very quickly with looks of innocence.

"What do you mean sir?" George asked politely.

"Yeah, our wands are in our bags!" Fred told him, shoving them in simultaneously, yet surreptitiously.

"Honestly Mr. Weasley's, after what I've heard about you, I admit that I'm disappointed. I expected more of a challenge." He said, smirking, which looked very strange on his crooked gash of a mouth. The twins didn't say anything, but merely sat motionless, blinking in their seats, still trying to play dumb. Moody snorted and then continued writing on the board. He hadn't even punished them! That was strange; you'd expect someone like Moody to be super strict. I guess he thought the embarrassment of failure was enough this time.

I looked over at them. They were muttering to each other, presumably trying to figure out how to redeem themselves. I laughed. No one could remember the last time one of Fred and George's pranks had failed.

The rest of the class passed quickly. It was all theoretical work which was never very interesting. With five minutes till the bell, Lee raised his hand. Moody glanced over at him.

"Yes, Mr.-,"

"Lee Jordan sir. I was wondering if you could tell us what it's like. You know, to be out there. Fighting the Dark Arts. I mean, you were an Auror." He said, looking nervous. Maybe he didn't feel comfortable asking such a question. Moody didn't seem reluctant to answer though.

"What's it like? I'll tell you Mr. Jordan. Imagine being in a place you've never seen before, that's completely unfamiliar. You know there's danger about and you know it won't hesitate to kill you. But you don't know where and what it is. Your surroundings are completely new and you don't know which way to turn. Then, you hear some noise, and your blood runs cold, but you can't see anything. Yet, you know it's out there, waiting. Your heart starts beating even faster and you draw your wand, to give some image of self-confidence, yet you don't know the spell you're about to cast any more than the Prime Minister knows. Meanwhile, you know that your family and friends are in danger because of you. They're a target because of your vocation and you can't do anything to stop it. You're thousands upon thousands of miles away. Every human instinct is telling you to flee, to avoid the danger. But that would go against your code and your honor. A spell hits you unknowingly from the back knocking you to the ground and instilling fear in your heart. Then you slowly turn around on the floor to face your attacker." He growled. It wasn't just the idea that was frightening. Moody talking about it was utterly menacing. It sent shivers down my spine.

"My career path is not for the faint of heart Mr. Jordan, so I suggest that each and every one of you get that through your heads right now. Worry never does any good so get it over with and be prepared to face the unknown. The only way of having a chance of defending yourself is to maintain constant vigilance. I expect you to work on that. Now! For homework, read the next chapter in your textbooks. That'll be all. No use giving you more than you can handle on your first day." He growled, his tone changing instantly. The bell rang and everyone stood to leave. Fred George Lee and I hardly said anything when we left.

"Wow." Was all I could manage to choke out. The others nodded. I didn't bring up Fred and George's incident. I didn't want to embarrass them.

The 6th years had Transfiguration next and I had Care of Magical Creatures (something I was wary about since my conversation with Fred) so I walked with them. On our way there we reached a fork in the hallway. From one of the corridors emerged someone that I did not want to see. Cole Sanderson.


	5. Chapter 5

**Okay, this one is timelier than my last one. I hope you like it. Still looking for ideas so anyone who wants to contribute, you're more than welcome. I haven't set on a plot yet so I'd love suggestions. Thanks to those of you who wrote me reviews, they're greatly appreciated. I'm open to good or bad criticism because both help me improve. Anyway, I'll try not to bore you too much. Let's see how this chapter turns out.**

**Disclaimer: I wish I owned Harry Potter. But alas, it belongs to a J.K Rowling. Ever heard of her? If you haven't, then I'm very surprised you're reading this. Luckily, I have gained ownership over Rachel and Sarah, so I have accomplished something. Yay!**

The dark haired boy was walking with three of his friends. They had the names of Damian, Marcus, and Lance. Damian was short and broad while both Marcus and Lance were taller and slim. Cole was of an average build, but tall, although despite their different sizes, each had the same expression on their face: a cold, condescending sneer. These looks only intensified when they saw Fred, George, Lee and myself approaching. Both groups halted when they met. It was tense, like two gangs meeting on the street, a fight about to break out. I severely hoped that this would not occur. I didn't want to hurt anyone.

"Well, look who it is!" Marcus mocked in that nasally voice of his.

"Oh yes, look. It appears we've stumbled across four trolls, wandering around Hogwarts. That doesn't seem right; trolls aren't smart enough to learn magic. How'd they get in, I wonder? And you know, I thought trolls usually had at least _some_ muscle." George mused derisively. I smirked, feeling pleased. George had just insulted their intelligence, their looks, and their masculinity all at once. That was clever. The four people standing across from me were not as pleased. They were scowling.

I didn't feel guilty in the least, though we were being harsh. There had been many fights with this group the previous year, both verbal and nonverbal. They had always been caused by our adversaries. We were typically pleased to ignore them(although, we did find these four to usually be the perfect test subjects for some of the Weasley's pranks), but that doesn't mean we wouldn't defend our typically won them, but they still got in a couple good shots. The trick was to not let them get to you. If you got worked up, it was much more difficult to come up with retorts.

"The jealous ones always take shots at the truly great ones." Lance intoned, trying to sound wise. He failed dismally.

"Really? Then what were all of those attempted insults last year? And I say attempted because you really didn't accomplish much. It was quite pathetic." Lee scorned.

"We're mature enough not to engage in such childish fights. We've left that stage of juvenile behavior." Marcus said in his scratchy voice.

"Really? Now that's just fascinating," I said my voice dripping with sarcasm. "Oh, and by the way Marcus, you might want to consider getting a couple cough drops. That cold sounds nasty. Or has your voice always sounded like that? Funny, I don't remember it sounding like a dying cat. It was always more like a blender grinding up a chalkboard." Fred, George and Lee started laughing while Marcus fell prey to a pink tinge appearing on his cheeks.

"How can you even bear to be around each other? The stink would be too much for me. But, I guess that you Weasley's, being blood traitors and all would be used to the stench. But what about you Rachel? How do you bear it? You don't even know what you are, do you? Although, judging by the smell, I'd bet my life on Mudblood." Cole snapped. That was a good one, I couldn't deny. However, it didn't hurt. True, I didn't know what I was. I had been adopted when I was sixth months old. My new mother was a witch, but my father was a muggle. However, no one remembered my real parents, so I wasn't sure what my heritage was. It didn't bother me though; retorts on that topic never did. Did it matter where I came from? Not really. It wouldn't stop me from acting like myself and it wouldn't change who I was, so what was the point in wondering?

Though it didn't bother me, it did bother someone else. Fred lunged at Cole, fist pulled back. When he reached the pale youth, he let his fist fly. It came into contact with his nose and blood began to flow. I stood there shocked. Blood traitor was nothing the Weasley's hadn't heard before. It had never bothered them then.

I didn't know what to do. I just stood there, stunned. Damian, Lance, and Marcus had been knocked aside in the process of Fred's assault. They were recovering from surprise on the floor. George and Lee hadn't been expecting Fred's attack either so it was several moments before they had time to gather themselves and pull Fred off of Cole. Cole hadn't been expecting Fred to attack either so he hadn't been able to defend himself in time.

"What-, do-, you-, think-, you're-, doing?" George hissed as he and Lee hauled Fred from Cole. Assaults were always risky at Hogwarts. Teachers punished pretty harshly for them. Filch loved it. That was why George was incredulous.

"He called-… He said… the little git….I'll rip him apart…" Fred growled as he struggled against Lee and George's hold. He was furious; I could see it in his face. Fred rarely lost his temper. He was usually so good natured.

"Maybe so, but that was risky. You know that teachers are strict about fighting. And then McGonagall would probably right to your mum." Lee warned. I could see the gears turning in Fred's head as this logic was processed. He slowly calmed down and then his two friends released him.

Damian, Lance, and Marcus had stood up and were now helping Cole to his feet who was a little worse for the wear. His nose was bleeding profusely and his eye was bruised, already beginning to swell up. He was glaring furiously at the assailant.

"You'll pay for that. Don't think I won't get my revenge. I always do." He threatened. "For a start, I think McGonagall ought to hear about this incident. Then she'll write to your dear mummy." He sneered. "And that's just the beginning." He vowed and with that, he swept down the hallway past us, his friends trailing after him.

"Why did you do that Fred? I mean, aside from telling McGonagall, there's really not much he can do that we can't handle, but still McGonagall can be tough even though you're in her house." I asked. Fred was still angry, muttering to himself.

"He called you Mudblood, that spineless, treacherous, little sneak. I hate that word. He doesn't even know what kind of blood you are. No one does." He snarled. I was taken aback. I had never dreamed that Fred would be defending me. It was sweet, but he needn't have caused himself trouble. But, a part of me was glad he'd done it. I'd never had anyone look out for me the way Fred had. It was chivalrous and heroic. I wasn't about to tell him that though.

"Oh, Fred that was really sweet and I appreciate it. But you shouldn't have done that. It was more trouble than it was worth. And now you'll get at least four detentions on my behalf. It doesn't bother me. For all I know, that's what I am." I reasoned.

"What?!" He howled. "How can you say that? You're not a Mudblood!" I shook my head.

"You can't be certain. Even if it isn't a kind word, if my parents were muggle's, it doesn't change that that's what I am. It's fixed. But it doesn't matter. I'm still me, so what's the point of fretting?" I pointed out. George and Lee were looking at me incredulously while Fred shook his head to himself.

"I can't believe you'd say that." He muttered.

"See how much trouble blood's already caused? You've gotten yourself a load of trouble at your doorstep, not to mention all of the controversy in the Wizarding world." I said. A new voice then entered in our conversation.

"Fear not young lass, for he shall not get detention!" It was a painting on the wall. It was the only one in the hallway and depicted two men sitting together at a table drinking tea.

"What?" Lee asked.

"The only proof that scoundrel has is the treacherous wounds on his face and the words of his friends. Not very sound evidence if you ask me." The man said. He had a brilliant red moustache, one to be proud of.

"Indeed not," said his blonde companion. "For all anyone knows, they were the results of his own acts of stupidity and his friend's are merely covering up for him."

"Fear not. First chance we get, we shall inform Professor McGonagall that the rascals are speaking nothing but lies. She will believe a witness." I was surprised but pleasantly so.

"Thank you. But why would you do that?" I wondered.

"We are of the House of Gryffindor as well, where courage is valued. We don't think that it should be reprimanded. You showed great courage and nobility defending the honor of your young lady love." Moustache man told Fred smiling proudly.

"She's not my love." Fred muttered turning red. I giggled. George and Lee laughed loudly.

"You know, the intelligent thing to do would have been to tell Professor Snape. He'd be even harsher on you." I pointed out.

"But McGonagall has more power because she's head of house." Lee said.

"I dunno about that," George said. "Stuff gets around in the staff room. McGonagall would have heard anyway; you know how Snape loves to rub stuff in."

"True." Lee granted.

"Shouldn't you four be off to class now?" One of the painted gentlemen asked. I jumped with a start.

"Oh crap! Class started nearly ten minutes ago!" I yelped.

"And we've got McGonagall! She'll roast us alive for being late!" Lee groaned. With that, we all hurried down the hallway, the sixth years sliding to a halt outside of their classroom door, me continuing on to make it to the grounds.

I was fifteen minutes late to Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures class. Sarah and Katie both flashed me looks of confusion that clearly said '_Where were you'? _ but I ignored them. I think Hagrid might have scolded me slightly (he was never too good at the discipline thing) but for the look on my face when I arrived. It must have been funny, because he started chuckling before returning to his explanation of the creatures we were studying. In front of him sat four large crates and inside were the creatures that Fred had described, all slimy, crawling over each other. It was kind of gross.

The class, though not uneventful, was not fun. Many of us sustained injuries from the Blast-Ended Skrewts as Hagrid called them. I myself had a burn on my wrist. Turns out the creatures could bite, sting, or burn. They were vicious for their size. I had to hold back the urge to stamp all over them. Sarah, Katie and I were able to hold a conversation though.

"So why were you late?" Katie asked as we worked with the little slugs.

"Well," I began and I recounted my tale. They laughed when I repeated some of the repartee and gasped when I told them about Fred attacking Cole. When I finished my story, they were both looking at each other, having an unspoken conversation with their eyes.

"What?" I asked.

"He sooo likes you!" Sarah squealed. I tried to feign confusion.

"Who, the man in the painting?" They rolled their eyes.

"Come on, you know who we mean. Fred totally just stuck up for you!" Katie pointed out.

"Fred doesn't like me! Anyway, lots of people stick up for their friends! I'd do it for you." I pointed out. They shook their heads impatiently.

"Not like that!" Sarah sang smiling.

That was really nice of the men in the portrait though." Katie said, drawing the conversation off of me.

"Oh yes, paintings are very helpful and friendly. I can't count the number of times I discussed the difference of acrylics and oil pastels with the subjects of them!" I joked. My friends laughed.

It was not long before the class was over and we had to go to dinner. We walked up the lawn and entered the Entrance Hall. Then we walked to the Great Hall and went over to our table. We took seats next to Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley.

"Hello Hermione, Ron, Harry." I said, acknowledging them each with a smile while helping myself to pork chops and a serving of mashed potatoes.

"Hey Rachel, Sarah, Katie." They greeted us. Hermione began stuffing her face, eating as quickly as she could. Ron asked her about this after the rest of us exchanged looks, but she only gave answers that were even more mystifying. She soon left for the library and Lee, George, and Fred sat down.

"Moody, how cool is he?" Fred said.

"Beyond cool." George said, sitting down opposite his brother.

"Supercool." Lee said sitting next to George. "We had him this afternoon."

"What was it like?" Harry inquired earnestly. The threesome exchanged meaningful looks.

"Never had a lesson like it." Fred told him.

"He _knows_ man." Lee said.

"Knows what?" Ron wondered.

"Knows what it's like to be out there doing it." George explained.

"Doing what?" Harry asked.

"Fighting the Dark Arts." Fred answered.

"He's seen it all." George added.

"Mazing." Lee said. Ron eagerly checked his schedule.

"We haven't got him till Thursday!" He complained.

"Tough, little brother." Fred said.

Dinner passed quickly as we discussed our days. It wasn't long before we were standing up and walking out of the Great Hall. As the others ascended the stairs, Fred spoke to me.

"Rachel, a word?" he requested.

"Sure." I complied, nodding. He led me away from the others who continued on without noticing us. Fred turned to face me. I held my breath, anxious about what he would say.


	6. Chapter 6

**Okay everyone, I hope you like my story so far. I have a little bit of an idea of where I might go with it, but I'm still happy to get suggestions. Good or bad criticism is welcome. (Please let me know about any OOCness you notice. I've found it's a lot harder to see it as the writer than the reader)**

**Secondly, I'd like to correct a mistake I made in one of the past chapters. In the chapter in which I gave you Rachel's class schedule, I believe I said that she had Potions with 6****th**** years. Well that is incorrect, she should be having Potions with her own class. Just wanted to clarify.**

**Also, I received an anonymous review on chapter five. It was the only one I've gotten so far on chapter five so whoever sent it, you know who you are. I would have responded personally but because it was anonymous, I couldn't. You know what I mean. Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks for your review! I'm really glad you gave me feedback and it helped because now I have a general idea of where Burning stands in reader's minds. I'm glad you find the story more interesting now and I'll try to keep it so. Just wanted to let you know that your review was appreciated. As always, I've talked for far too long. Onwards to Hogwarts.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own or have ever owned Harry Potter. Unfortunately.**

Fred stared into my eyes. He took a deep breath. My insides were squirming like spaghetti turned alive. What would he say?

"Listen, about what happened today before last class-," He began, but I interrupted. I don't often do that, but I was so nervous. I was spazzing on the inside.

"Oh, you're not in trouble are you? I hope it isn't too bad. That was really sweet of you, to defend me and all, but you shouldn't have. Look where it's got-," I said, but now Fred interrupted.

"No, that's not it. McGonagall hasn't mentioned the fight that may, or may not have happened today at all. She was a little annoyed at me, George, and Lee for being late but as it's so early in the year, she didn't give us detention." He gave me a small smile, but his face returned to its previous solemn state. It was weird. Fred had been more serious this year so far than he had for the years I'd known him. What was up?

"What I'm talking about is what you said. You know, about how you were a…." He trailed off here, reluctant to put me in the same context I suppose.

"Mudblood?" I finished for him? He nodded.

"You don't seriously think that about yourself do you?" He asked. I sighed. I had really hoped he wouldn't make this big of a deal about it (and a small part of me was disappointed. Was this all he wanted to talk about?)

"Look, I'm not sure if I am Muggle-born or not. But I don't care. I was just trying to make a point about the irrelevance of blood-type. It doesn't matter, it's who we choose to make ourselves that's important. So if I am Muggle-born and a mudblood, so what?" I said, hoping I had gotten through to him. The look on his face told me I hadn't.

"Even if you were Muggle-born, that wouldn't make you Mudblood." He persisted. I shook my head in disagreement. Even though I liked Fred, I was becoming annoyed now. He was absolutely refusing to listen to me, so I wasn't going to keep arguing.

"I thought the Weasley's wouldn't let something as trivial as blood cloud their reason and judgment. I never thought they cared about something like that" I said, probably with more frost than was necessary. Fred widened his eyes.

"No! I didn't mean that! I just-, ah man, I just don't want you to listen to anything that git Sanderson says." He said. He was concerned I was angry with him; I could see that easily enough. I didn't want to upset him, so I softened my eyes.

"Look, I've had enough experience with him to know he's nothing but an idiot. You don't need to concern yourself about me. But I appreciate you sticking up for me." I said earnestly. I didn't want him to think I wasn't grateful for his defense. He sighed and nodded.

"Okay, I understand. Oh, and Rachel-," he said. He paused.

"Yes?" I prompted. He still looked a bit nervous. He shook his head, his flaming hair dancing before my eyes.

"Never mind." He mumbled.

"What?" I pressed.

"It's nothing."

"No! Tell me, please?" I pleaded. He sighed again and then grinned at me mischievously.

"I just wanted to know how badly those monsters of Hagrid's tore you up!" He said, his eyes twinkling. I laughed, but I was slightly disappointed. I had been expecting something more important than that.

"No, I'm just fine thank you very much." And with that, we both made our way up to Gryffindor Tower, to end our first day of classes.

I awoke to a bright sun shining in the windows. It glared harshly in my eyes, and I, rubbing them, pushed back my covers and let my feet fall on the chilly wooden floor. The red hangings of my four-poster bed were hanging around the posts. Katie and Sarah had already gone downstairs, presumably to get an early-breakfast. They usually didn't wait for me because we all knew how difficult it could be to force me to get up in the morning. I liked to get up at my own pace, which was almost always in time for class. So, no harm done.

The two other girls in my dorm seemed to have accidentally slept in. Their names were Marie and Kelsey. I prodded them awake with my wand and had a good time watching them freak out because the slept in. They seemed to like to overestimate the time they needed to eat. Oh well.

I dressed quickly and grabbed my bag, running down the stairs and to the Great Hall. I sat with Sarah and Katie this morning, although I did glance down the table several times to see Fred laughing and joking with his friends. I was glad that he seemed back to his normal self.

The day past as uneventfully as any day could at Hogwarts. I had Ancient Runes with Angelina Johnson, one of my 6th year friends. It was a nice class, not particularly strenuous, but still interesting. Then I had Charms with the 6th years. So far, in all of my 6th year classes, the teachers had all been talking about NEWTs and their importance. Fred and George didn't seem to care much, and neither did I as I would just have to hear the same speech in a year's time. I played hangman with them, but Fred had caught on to my random strategy (one that I had adopted since the Percy-dungbeetle one had worked so well). Now that he new in general what I was planning, it became very difficult to slip the noose around his neck. (Wow, that sounded gruesome didn't it?)But he always laughed at my messages and every time he did, my heart jumped.

The day was over eventually and I went to sleep, only to have my head invaded with dreams that consisted mostly of an ice sculpture of a mountain lion melting. I dunno, I never understand my dreams. Nothing I can do, not like Trelawney's dream interpreting course would do much good. Most people I know said she was a joke.

The next morning, I awoke and groaned for two reasons. One, I had awoken too early. Maybe I was nervous because of the second reason for my groan. Double Potions this morning. Yick.

Not being able to find slumber again, I threw the covers off and got ready for the day ahead. I just had to get through the morning. The impending doom of Potions. Snape never liked Gryffindors, but he especially didn't like me. I hadn't liked the way he had spoken to some of my friends when I first met him so I adopted a very cheeky manner in his presence which he found and I quote 'extremely disrespectful'. Well, for all I care, he can go boil his toes in scalding gillywater. Unfortunately, he's still my teacher and will be for several years yet.

I went down to the Great Hall with Katie and Sarah. I tried to stop my nerves by eating something but all that resulted in was an urge to puke. It was way too early, and now I had potions. Great. Better to not eat anything.

All too soon, Sarah told me it was time to descend into the fiery hellhole that was the dungeons. Okay, maybe I'm a bit histrionic. But you know, I have a right to be. I'm tired.

The door was closed when we got there, although several students were already there. Oh joy, we have Potions with the Slytherins. This day could not get any better.

Plus, having a class with the Slytherins would mean seeing Cole for the first time since the fight, something I was not overly-eager to do.

Soon, most of the class was there. Last to enter the hallway outside of the classroom was Cole and his three cronies. Cole seemed just as conceited as ever, so apparently, no one had found out about the fight. Of course he would want to keep it quiet if McGonagall thought he was lying. He would just embarrass himself whether people believed him or not.

He flicked his dark hair out of his eyes. Two female twits from Slytherin giggled at the sight of him. How pathetic. Of course, with people like Crabbe and Goyle from the year below me, in the Slytherin house, you must not have many options.

Cole avoided my gaze, and I his, however we both knew that we were aware of the other. Suddenly, Snape flung the door open and silently motioned for us to enter. Cole brushed by me quickly and I heard him hiss "Watch your back Harrington."

"Is that a threat Sanderson?" I challenged. He sneered at my response and took a seat next to Lance. I took my seat next to Katie.

Snape gave us a very short 5th year introduction. (Thank god we didn't have to sit through another OWLs speech). He told us that we would be mixing a Draught of Peace, an extremely difficult potion with many specific instructions. I inwardly groaned. Leave it to Snape to try and fail us all on the first day. And by us all, I meant all of the Gryffindors. Snape loved Slytherins by default as he was their head of house.

Snape left the instructions on how to make the potion on the blackboard and exited the room to go and consult Professor McGonagall on some important business that he would not tell us about. He gave us a frosty glare as if challenging us to try anything while he was away. Then he left, leaving the students to struggle along with the extremely difficult potion.

I myself am okay at potions. At least, okay enough to pass the class, but it is easily one of my worst subjects. Which would explain why I wasn't accelerated in it.

I walked over to the classroom ingredient cupboard, not having all of the necessary mixings in my own store. Opening it and searching around, I quickly located the necessary ingredients, extracted them and began to walk back to my workspace. My seat was in the back of the classroom and the store cupboard was in the front so I had to walk the length of the room.

On the return trip, when I walked past Cole's table, with one swift movement, he swept his hand across the table, making it look as though he were reaching for something. In the process, the back of his hand collided with a vile of bubbling green liquid, sending it soaring through the air towards me, spilling its contents all over me.

I let out a short yelp. The liquid stung slightly and I could already feel it beginning to crust over. It was very uncomfortable. I didn't know what the concoction was but I did know one thing. That was not an accident.

At the sound of my voice, many people glanced up from their work to see what the commotion was. What they saw was Cole and his friends trying to conceal laughs and myself drenched in a pungent smelling liquid, glaring furiously. I was not going to let that one slide.

"Oh sorry Harrington, it was an accident." Cole sneered in a voice dripping with mock repentance.

"Yeah, and I'm married to the Whomping Willow!" I retorted sarcastically.

"Really?" Marcus asked. "Should we be expecting kids?" The Slytherins laughed and my fellow Gryffindors began to defend me angrily. I grimaced. Dang, I had accidentally set myself up for that one. Hey, cut me some slack, I was enraged.

"You'll pay for that Sanderson!" I vowed through gritted teeth. Now the liquid was sending chills throughout my body. With that, I drew my wand and pointed it towards him. Cole was ready and drew his own wand in defense.

"Just try it," He snarled. "Just give me a reason to and I swear I will."

I thought about that for a moment and decided to try something a little unconventional; something he would not expect. I pointed my wand at Lance's bubbling cauldron which was behind Cole and with a simple Reducto, caused it to explode, drenching Cole, Lance, and many of the other Slytherins. I smiled triumphantly as they yelped in surprise. Cole was not pleased but he recovered quickly and shot a Conjunctivitis curse at me. I dodged, but just barely. I felt the tip of the jet of light graze my elbow slightly. I countered with Scourgify, causing soap suds to come oozing out of Cole's ears. That distracted him momentarily and I aimed a disarming spell at him and missed. He had recovered his wits by then and used Silencio on me. That was fairly advanced, but Cole wasn't unintelligent.

This wasn't good. I didn't know how to use nonverbal charms yet and I had no voice to use against my adversary. Cole opened his mouth, about to cast another spell, when Snape reentered the room. This was both a blessing and a curse. It prevented Cole from casting his spell, but obviously we were in some trouble. Both me and Cole were drenched in mysterious concoctions not to mention half of the other Slytherins. Snape's eyes flashed dangerously.

"What is going on in here?" He hissed quietly, but violently. Both me and Cole knew that words were useless now, so we refrained from speaking (not that I could have anyway, with Cole's spell still active on me). It seemed that even Snape's favoritism of Slytherins would not be able to save Cole from getting into trouble. When we didn't answer, Snape spoke.

"It hardly matters. It's easy to see what occurred. Both Mr. Sanderson and Miss Harrington thought that my absence would be a good opportunity to practice dueling. Well, you will have another opportunity to discuss dueling tactics together tonight when you are both scouring my classroom in detention. 6:30, sharp. No need to get back to finishing your Potion, get up to the infirmary. Sanderson, you'll want to make sure there isn't an excess amount of soap in your body and Harrington, that liquid looks as though it may cause some trouble if left in contact with the skin for too long. Get out of here now." He hissed.

"Yes sir," Cole said, bowing his head. I would have responded, but I could not. When I didn't, Snape raised an eyebrow at me. I opened my mouth and pointed to it to show I could not speak.

"Stupid girl." He grumbled and lifted the curse from me. I scowled.

"Thank you sir." I answered grudgingly and walked towards the door to the hallway with Cole. The Slytherins snickered at Snape's sentiment and the Gryffindors murmured sympathetically. I stepped outside, glad to be free of that classroom. Now it was just me and Cole in the corridor. We both glared at each other and began climbing the staircase to the hospital wing in silence.

It was an awkward climb and it was a while before we reached our destination. When we got there, Madam Pomfrey sat us each down on different hospital beds and began fussing over us. To be honest, it was really annoying. I was not in a good mood.

Finally, after Madame Pomfrey was certain that Cole and I were okay, she let us go. Potions would have finished by now, so it was time to head down to lunch. I walked as quickly as I could so as to get ahead of Cole.

When I entered the Great Hall, I was greeted with the whispers of those who had noticed my arrival. I sat down quickly with my friends and they sympathized with what had happened.

I had 6th year History of Magic next and when I met up with Fred, George, and Lee, they asked me about the fight as they had heard about it. I told them I didn't want to talk about it, which I didn't. It was awful knowing that I would have to have detention with Cole, that git. They left it at that.

Care of Magical Creatures passed too quickly for my taste. Afterwards, I went upstairs to Gryffindor Tower to begin on some homework that I knew I would have no time for later tonight. No doubt Snape would keep me super late, just to prolong my torture.

At 6:15, I headed down to the dungeons, prepared for some heavy duty cleaning. I wouldn't' put it past Snape to purposely make his room extra filthy just for me. No doubt Cole would get off easy somehow.

I pushed open the door and saw Cole inside waiting, a sour look on his face. We stood there in silence while we waited for Snape to emerge from his office. It was too much to hope for that he had forgotten.

Snape finally did come in, like a huge bat, sweeping around in his dark cloak. He sneered down his hooked nose at me condescendingly.

"Now, you two know why you are here. You'll be cleaning my dungeons today. I expect it to be spotless by the time your done and if it's not, we'll just have to try again some other time. Wands." He requested holding out his hand.

"Sir," I began, about to protest, but he cut me off.

"You'll give me your wands now. No magic is to be used and I don't want another fight to break out." He said, his eyes glinting dangerously. I reluctantly handed him my wand, as did Cole.

"I'll return later, get to work." He said, and swept out of the room. Talk about vague instructions. I turned to look at Cole and glared. Oh boy, here we go.

**Okay guys, I'm really sorry this was so late, and I'm sorry I can't update more often, I'm just super busy. Anyway, if it seems like I don't have any destination I'm getting to, don't worry, I do, just hang in there. Hope you like it! Reviews please!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey everyone. You must be getting tired of my apologies and just want me to do something about it, but I'll say it again. I'm so sorry this is late. I really am trying. I feel bad and I want to write more so I'll really try even harder now. Although, I won't make promises, because, as you can see, every time I try to be faster about updating, well that doesn't do much good. Anyway. I'm really sorry once again. I'd tried to make up for it because this chapter is a little bit longer than the rest, I think. **

**A special thanks to any and all who favorited my story, added it to their alert list or wrote me a review. All are greatly appreciated! So, thanks again.**

**I'd like to correct a mistake I made when writing one of the previous chapters. I think Moody gave an OWLs speech to Rachel's Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Well, that's not right. If she's in the 6****th**** year DADA class, then he wouldn't have given that speech to them, seeing as they already took those tests. Sorry about that, wasn't thinking. You can just pretend he said NEWTs or something. I don't know, I'm pretty sure it's not killing anyone, so I'll leave it there, but I just wanted to apologize about that. And now, back to Rachel's adventures!**

**Just a forewarning. The musical opinions expressed in this chapter do not necessarily reflect my own. Just wanted to put that out there. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, Hogwarts, or any of the works. I do happen to own Rachel, Sarah, Cole and his cronies etc.**

I decided that if I wanted any chance of getting out of here before midnight, I'd have to take charge and lay down the law. Here we go. I took a deep breath.

"Okay, listen up Sanderson, we may have detention together, but if you don't bother me, I'll show you the same respect, as if you deserve it. I'll clean this half of the room and you can do that side. Sound fair?" I said, gesturing to each side of the room has I spoke of it. He raised an eyebrow.

"Chill Harrington. I don't enjoy your company any more than you do mine. But fine, I think you'll find that that'll work." He sneered, turning on his heel to begin his job. I nodded and did the same, rolling up my sleeves.

I decided to begin with the desks, which were disgusting to say the least, with various stains and remains of Drooble's Best Blowing gum stuck to the underside. Ew.

I tipped one onto its side and got a rag from one of the cabinets in the room. Then I wet it and walked back to the worktable. I began to scrub and after five minutes, I had made very little progress. Sighing slightly in frustration, I tried again. Still, little improvement was shown. I tried moving to another spot, but nothing came of it. I was growing annoyed. Snape had probably done something to make these stains impossible to remove and because he had taken my wand, I couldn't do anything to reverse it. That git.

I stood up straight and wiped the sweat from my forehead. God, manual cleaning was so difficult. I quickly glanced over to the other side of the room to see if Cole had given up yet. He turned out that he was staring at me, looking a little amused. He had also started with the work tables and his first two were already done. How had he done that so quickly? I scowled at the look he was giving me.

"Look, the stains won't come out, alright, so you can stop giving me that look!" I growled, running my hand through my hair in frustration. He snorted derisively at my annoyance, then turned back to his third table.

I tried again, and still, in vain. Frowning, I sat back on my heels to try and figure out what to do. I saw a shadow darken the image I was looking at, and, turning around, saw Cole standing over me with a strange look on his face. Was it derisiveness? Or pity? Or even regret?

"Here." He said and held out something in his hand. It was a glass vial. I took it and examined the purple label which was wrapped around it. It read 'Miss Marjorie's Stain Remover. Removes all kinds of stains imaginable! (except dragon dung)' I looked up at him frowning.

"What's this?" I asked. He smirked.

"Still illiterate, are we? And after all these years too." He shook his head mockingly, and I flushed.

"That's not what I-," I started to say angrily, but he interrupted me.

"Chill, Harrington. It's just stain remover. I thought there might be something like this in Snape's vile dungeons," he said dramatically. "And it turns out I was right. I nicked it from one of Filch's store cupboards, and it's working pretty well, so you can use it if you like." He said, seeming a little uncomfortable about doing something nice for me. I looked at him suspiciously, but I could detect no trace of malice on his face, so I decided to go with it. If he was being nice, finally, I wasn't about to awaken sleeping dogs.

I sufficed by saying "Thanks, I really appreciate it." He smirked again.

"As much fun as I was having watching you struggle along by yourself, my conscience got the better of me. You're lucky, it doesn't normally do that." At this I sighed inwardly and returned to my work. With Cole's stain remover, it only took me a little under an half hour to clean every one of the desks, because I'm a fast worker. After the desks were cleaned, we decided to start on the filthy blackboard. There were decades of chalk dust caked on it. For all I knew, it wasn't black and just a gross, brown green color. We worked in silence. The mess wasn't bad enough to use the stain remover, but it still took us forever to make any headway whatsoever. It seemed like it just kept spewing more filth. Just as we were finishing that task, at around eight-fifteen, Snape returned and sniffed, his gaze sweeping over the room, inspecting our work.

"Not bad for one night's work, but you've still got a ways to go. Tomorrow night, same time. You'll continue your work tomorrow." He said brusquely. He handed us our wands and motioned for us to leave. I turned on my heel and walked out of the dungeon, Cole close behind me. As soon as we had shut the door behind us and were out of earshot, I began muttering, half to myself, half to Cole.

"That slimy git. That's probably the best cleaning he's seen in years, including the seldom time when he washes his hair, if he ever does." I said angrily. I didn't want to come back tomorrow, and though I knew it was unlikely we would be done after just one night, a small candle had glowed inside me with hope. That candle had just been doused in icy water. I heard Cole chuckle softly behind me.

"Tell me about it. We should probably let him know about the new invention they have out. It's a little something called shampoo." I giggled nervously, a little surprised. I knew Cole didn't like Snape, but it was still weird hearing words like that come from a Slytherin's lips. Sure, Cole accepted the favoritism that Snape showed him, and used it to his advantage like the shrewd Slytherin he was, but if I remembered correctly, and things hadn't changed too much, he didn't like him.

We had reached the Entrance Hall by this point and I stood there awkwardly with Cole. He also seemed to be at a loss for what to say. I still thought he was obnoxious and I wasn't about to forget about our past, but I was grateful that he had acted more maturely tonight. It had made our work much easier.

"So, uh-," I began. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow." I said. He nodded, his face apathetic.

"Yeah, guess so." He replied, and he turned and walked down a flight of stairs where I knew led to the Slytherin common room. I ascended the sweeping stair case and began the long climb back to Gryffindor Tower. What had happened? That was when I realized it. Cole was tricking me. He was going to get back at me because of what happened with Fred and because his plan in the dungeon had halfway backfired, he had some new plan concocted. Why hadn't I realized it sooner? I guess my brain was still fried from the summer or something because normally, I'd never be so naïve. Alright, well, that was the way he wanted to play? Fine, I'd play. I'd be ready when he attacked.

With these thoughts whirling around in my mind, I gave the Fat Lady the password, entered Gryffindor Tower, and went up to my dorm to fall asleep.

The next morning, I awoke earlier than usual- around the same time as Katie and Sarah woke, actually. Naturally, they bombarded me with questions about my detention with Cole. I shrugged and tried to act nonchalant about everything. I told them that Cole had pretty much behaved and kept to himself. Which was the truth, partly. My friends believed me, although I did leave the part about the stain remover and my suspicions about his apparent change of heart out. I'm not sure why, but I had a feeling that Sarah would start telling me what I should do for revenge, should the time come. Then there was always the chance that Katie would blab to Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet with whom she was on very good terms with as they were her previous Quidditch team mates. I would rather have this whole occurrence stay private if it could. So, I only revealed part of the on-goings of the previous evening.

We all went down to breakfast together in the morning, a nice change. I grabbed myself a quick bowl of oatmeal and a slice of toast. Over at the Slytherin table, I spotted Cole sitting with his friends. He caught my eye, but it was met with no sneer of any kind. His expression was mostly apathetic, but I might have caught a trace of a knowing smile. When I had finished breakfast, I headed to my first class.

That morning, I had Double Defense Against the Dark Arts with the 6th years. I made my way to my destination. Everyone who had arrived took their seats and Moody set us some more textbook work. We were all disappointed. The class had hoped that something were interesting would follow our first class, but apparently not. Our disappointment must have been clear because Moody reassured us that we would start doing something more interesting. He told us that he hated textbook work just as much as the rest of us, but it's important to understand theory before trying hands on stuff if you want to have a hope of perfecting. As I began reading the chapter we were working on, Fred (who I was sitting next to today), nudged my elbow with his quill and shoved a piece of parchment towards me. In Fred's untidy, but distinguishable scrawl, it read _'Sorry about getting you a detention with Sanderson. It's all my fault. Don't lie to me, was it awful?'_

I contemplated what to write for a moment and then set my quill to the slip of paper. I wrote _'Nah, don't worry about it. It was mostly my fault, I mean, it takes two people to duel right? And honestly, it wasn't too bad, as detentions go. I mean, we had to clean Snape's dungeon, which was nasty, but Sanderson just ignored me mostly. Virtually painless.'_

Fred's response was as follows: _'I told you not to lie to me!'_

I giggled silently to myself when I read then and then drew a smiley face before writing _'If you were going to assume what my answer was, why did you bother to ask?'_

He wrote back quickly- _'To try and be polite. Snape's dungeon? That's disgusting! That can't have had a good cleaning in decades. Now I feel really bad about all of the mess's George and I made over the years. Oh well, at least, if you're telling the truth, Sanderson wasn't too bad And now you're done'. _

I read his message and wrote back. _'I know right? And don't feel too bad. Compared to the rest of the filth in there, the mess's you made with George really didn't have much of an impact. Yeah, Sanderson wasn't as bad as he could have been, but unfortunately we aren't done.'_

'_What? Why?'_ was what Fred wrote.

I flipped over the paper and replied because we were running out of room. _'We only did the desk's and the blackboard. Because we didn't' finish, Snape's making us go back again till it's done'._

'_Damn, that's rough. Well, if Sanderson gives you any trouble at all, let me know.'_

'_Not likely! We'd just have to start this thing all over again! Ha-ha, ah well, I'll survive….I hope…'_ I wrote and Fred was about to respond when the parchment was incinerated instantly. We both looked up in alarm and Moody was looking at us sternly his wand pointed at where the paper had been moments before. He motioned to us to get back to our reading which we did hastily.

I had Herbology after lunch, with the 5th years. There we were put into groups and had to correctly plant our five Furlon pods. They liked to be planted in one of several possible patterns but it had to be done with precision. If done correctly, their flowers would give a crucial ingredient to many poisons. I was in a group with Katie, Sarah, and a girl named Holly. Ours went okay, but we put two of the pods too close together, or so Professor Sprout said, and when we watered them, they broke apart and were useless. Whatever, I never wanted to be a botanist, muggle or wizarding, anyway.

Then I had Charms where we were already starting to learn the spells we would need to know for NEWTs. Eventually, we would get to start learning how to make inanimate objects say something repetitively, which we were all looking forward to. That would be super amusing. But, today we just went over basic hovering charms.

In my various classes, I had been assigned several essays as homework. That evening, before my detention, I got to work on them. They weren't too bad if you could actually focus and read the material. Then, like the previous day, at 6:15 I started going downstairs for my detention. On the way there, I took a leaf out of Cole's book and snuck inside one of the store cupboards. In there, I found various brands of stain remover and I selected the one that had been so successful last night. No need to fix what's not broken, huh? I did this because I didn't feel comfortable relying on Cole's so-called generosity to be sustained. If he was a jerk again, I'd be severely sorry that I didn't have my own method of cleaning.

What was I to suspect from Cole tonight? All I knew was that there was no way he had actually had a change of heart. There had been too much bitterness throughout the years for it to just go away like that. And now he was a temperamental adolescent so that didn't help his case any. No, I was sure he was just faking courteousness. But what to do about it? I knew he was faking, but I didn't know why. Where would acting polite get him? I wasn't sure, so until I did, I decided that I'd play along. If he was okay tonight, then I'd act nicely to him. And if not, well, that'd just put us back at square one.

I reached the dungeons and Cole arrived shortly after myself. Similarly to last night, Snape took his good old time arriving, but once he did, he immediately set us to work and left. I turned to Cole awkwardly and spoke, still unsure of his attitude.

"So, er- what do you think we should do first?" He didn't respond with a nasty retort, merely with a shrug and an 'I dunno'.

"Well, how about we clean out the store cupboard then?" I suggested. He nodded in uncaring agreement. I led the way and opened the cupboard and I was immediately met with the foulest stench you can imagine. It came from the various spills and mixings of odors that had occurred in here over the years. I usually held my breath when I opened this particular cabinet although I had forgotten this time. In my disgust, I jumped back spluttering and coughing. When I turned around, Cole was looking at me, one eyebrow raised. His face wore a mildly amused expression.

"It smells disgusting!" I explained. "Go on, have a whiff!" He laughed and shook his head.

"Nah, I don't think I will. I'm not ready to die just yet."

"Pansy" I muttered, just loud enough to hear.

"What did you just call me?" He asked with indignation.

"You heard me." I told him.

"Cole Sanderson is no pansy." He protested.

"Then prove it," I challenged. "Help me clean it."

"Fine." He consented. I turned back to the cabinet and said "Alright, I'm going in."

Holding my breath, I dove forward and grabbed an armful of the boxes and jars that were kept inside the cache of disgusting smells. Cole followed my lead and we set our collected items on the floor and then when back for second trips. It wasn't long before the entire contents of the store cupboards were spread on the dungeon floor. After that, we began looking through them and re-sorting them as some of the ingredients had made their ways to their improper homes. It was disgusting and frankly one of the strangest experiences of my life. There were some things that I couldn't identify and really didn't want to. At one point, Cole stuck his hand into a jar and yelped in surprise. When he pulled it out, he hand was covered in a weird, lumpy but creamy brown-colored substance. I started in surprise.

"What is in there?" I asked, wrinkling my nose. Cole stared at his hand in disgust.

"I swear, I have NO idea." He said, clearly revolted.

"It looks kinda like poo." I told him. He shot me a look of annoyance.

"Now why would you put that thought in my head?" He asked incredulously.

"Sorry." I said, smiling sheepishly. He shook his head and went to wash his hands. I continued with our work and when he came back he had what looked like a wizarding radio in his hand. In fact it was a radio.

"Where'd you get that?" I asked.

"Over by the sink. Who'd have thought Snape liked music?" he said.

"Probably listens to dirge's and funeral marches all the time." I muttered. Cole sat down on the ground, setting the radio next to him. He turned the dial and set the station. Some heavy metal music flowed out of the speaker and I raised my eyebrow.

"That's Dream Theater." I told him, naming the band. He looked up, his ice blue eyes full of surprise.

"Yeah, this is one of the few muggle stations on the Wizarding radio. You know Dream Theater?" He asked. I nodded.

"Actually, I'm more surprised that YOU know them." I said.

"Why?"

"Because they're a Muggle band and you- well…." I trailed off here, uncertain of how to continue. Cole smirked and finished my thought.

"I'm a Slytherin?"

"Well-…. Yeah."

"Believe it or not, we're not all the same, we Slytherins. Anyway, I've actually found that in my opinion, Muggle music is generally better than wizarding music. I mean, Celestina Warbeck? Alright, but not my style. The Weird Sisters? Pretty good, but they're kinda repetitive. Muggle music has a wider variety and I just like it better."

"I feel the same way. But why are YOU surprised?" I asked. I found it strange that we still had something in common after all the years, but I really wanted to keep the conversation going because I hoped that maybe I would be able to pick up on some of his plan for revenge. He shook his head.

"You don't strike me much as the heavy metal type." He said. I sighed.

"Yeah, I expected that much. Most people say that. I really don't have a specific genre of music I like. I just kinda like most of it, but they've all got ideal times to be listened to. Except ska. Sorry, but ska is the worst. Dream Theater's not one of my favorite band's, but I know them and I like them pretty well." I said simply. Cole laughed at what I said about ska.

"You'd hate my dad. He loves ska, doesn't matter if its Muggle or wizarding, he always plays it around the house. Me? Can't stand it but I've built an immunity over the years." I laughed at that. Now the song on the radio switched and soon I heard the melody of 'Chariot' by Gavin Degraw pouring out of the little device. By this point we had finished sorting the ingredients that were stored in the cupboard and then we moved on the scrubbing out the actual vessel. It was difficult, seeing how we couldn't avoid the smell if we wanted to breathe. Luckily, we were able to distract ourselves by further discussing our interests in music. It was funny, Cole seemed almost normal at times, like he was back to his old self. I had to remind myself several times that he was just putting on a ruse for some unknown ulterior motive. After the cupboard was cleaner than any house elf could have managed, we moved on to cleaning the miniature stoves that students used to heat their cauldrons on. We had to scrape away the charred substances that were stuck to the burners and our hands got dirty pretty quickly.

"Alright, how about Coldplay?" Cole asked.

"I like them a lot. However, I'm not too impressed with their latest album. I got it over the summer and it was alright, but X&Y was better. Also, some of their songs kinda sound too similar sometimes. Pretty good otherwise. Okay, how about Evanescence?" I asked.

"I'd agree with you on Coldplay. Evanescence is pretty good. Although I either love their songs or really dislike them. I'd like a little consistency. Sometimes their songs verge a little too much on gothic-sounding. Although some of their songs are great and have an awesome message. Amy Lee is really talented and plays a great piano. Slipknot?"

"Really? I always like Evanescence's music. Amy Lee's got an astounding voice and their songs just touch on a level of emotion that some people can't handle." I argued. "And Slipknot? Ick, not for me. I'm not a screamo person. That's about on the same level as ska for me. I'm okay with a little but there's only so much I can take and most groups go way overboard on it." I pretended to cough here and stuck Slipknots name somewhere in the coughing fit. Cole was shaking his head sadly.

"Not liking Slipknot? What's wrong with you?" I ignored that comment and gave him another musical name. "Natasha Bedingfield?"

"Don't tell me you're a Natasha Bedingfield girl." He moaned.

"So what if I am?" I asked defensively.

"She's way too happy. I mean, I'm not one to be miserable all the time. But she's TOO peppy. I mean, it's almost unnatural."

"You're crazy." I informed him.

"Whatever. Okay, Billy Joel."

"Love him," I said simply. Then I laughed and said, "Elvis." Cole laughed too.

"The King of Rock and Roll." Our conversation went on like that for a while. Eventually Snape came back in and told us to go back to our dorms, but we'd have to come back the next night. I'd expected this and left quickly after dismissal. Cole followed me out. We said goodbye, on better terms than we were last night and infinitely better than they had been in years. I began ascending the staircase up to Gryffindor Tower, trying to figure out exactly what was going on in Cole's head.

**Haha, so, what did you think? It's definitely going somewhere, I now know what the plot will be like, but I'm still open to suggestions. If the plot seems a little obvious, sorry, I'm trying my best, but if you want to contribute, it'd be greatly appreciated.**

**Thanks so much for reading and I'll TRY to update as soon as possible. Review please!**


	8. Chapter 8

**I know, I know, I'm terrible. You can shoot me if you want. But trust me, I have no intentions of abandoning this story and if for whatever reason, I decide that I do want to stop writing this story, I promise to let whoever hasn't gotten so annoyed with my infrequent updates that they've stopped reading know. I won't make up excuses for why I'm so late, I'm just gonna let you read the chapter.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter, then I would probably be out spending the money I made on it right now. But I am not spending the money I didn't make off of it, so due to the Transitive Property of Equality, I do not own Harry Potter. **

The next day passed uneventfully. I mean, it was kind of a blur. It happened just like the other two had. I went to my classes and when I was finished, went back to the common room to do my schoolwork until what would hopefully be my last detention in Snape's dungeon.

Actually there was a slight change. When I was doing my homework, Fred came over and sat down next to me reading what I wrote.

"You're planning on passing your Transfiguration OWL on that information? Good luck. I mean, I may not be the most devoted studier in Gryffindor, but at least I know that Transfiguration didn't originate in Austria. It originated in ancient Japan." He corrected, smiling craftily when I looked up. I rolled my eyes, but realizing he was right, corrected the faulty information on my essay.

"Look Fred, not to be rude or anything, but I seriously need to get this done before my detention. I mean, if I don't I'll be up late again because Snape'll probably keep me and Cole late." I said sighing at the thought of minimal sleep again tonight.

"Hey lighten up. Today's Friday. You can sleep late tomorrow if you want, and you've got the whole weekend to finish." He said, prodding me in the side with his elbow. Although my heart jumped a bit, I merely shook my head and smiled.

"If you remembered anything about last year, you'd know that I can't do homework over the weekend. I always forget, one way or another, until the last moment and then I get a bad grade on it." I told him. He laughed

.

"Oh yeah, I remember your essay for Charms on inanimate object control. No offense, but that was a disaster."

I glared, but ended up grinning a bit. Fred always made me smile. "Hey be nice," I said. "I did the best I could in ten minutes."

"Well hey, how bout this. You take a study break and come down to the kitchens with me. Then, tomorrow morning, I'll remind you about your essay so you'll have plenty of time to finish." He suggested. My stomach flipped when I realized he was singling me out. He could have asked anyone. I almost blurted out yes. Unfortunately, that was when my brain chose to interfere.

"Look, in addition to having a bad memory for deadlines, I have one of the worst procrastination problems in the history of Hogwarts. If I don't get it done now, I probably never will." I said heavily.

"Fine, I'll sit down with you and make you do your essay. Come on, I'm super hungry and George and Lee are discussing something about their grades with McGonagall." He complained. I raised an eyebrow derisively.

"You're hungry? We just had dinner." I pointed out.

"Yeah well, I get hungry quickly." He said defensively.

"Apparently," I said dryly. "But alright, I could go for a break." Hey, I didn't really want to say no.

Fred and I stood up and then exited the common room through the portrait hole. The Fat Lady called to us from behind.

"Mind you don't get back too late! I'm not supposed to let late-night wanderers back in!" she called, clearly aggravated at us for risking this.

"Yeah, yeah." Fred called back dismissively.

We walked in silence for a little while. Eventually Fred broke the silence.

"So, you're obviously coping well with your daily torture." He said. I turned to look at him, confused.

"Your meaning?" Fred snorted.

"Come on now, you don't mean to tell me that detentions with Sanderson have turned out to be not that bad. Because if you do say that, I'll run back to the common room and vomit on everyone until I'm ten times hungrier than I am now." He said smiling, clearly joking. I remained silent. Sure, I was unsure of Cole's motives, but to say that detention with him had been terrible would be a lie. When I didn't say anything, Fred stopped and stared at me incredulously. I looked down sheepishly at his stare.

"I'm going to upchuck." He said, looking at me with a bemused expression.

"Look, I'm not saying that detentions with him are enjoyable by any stretch of the imagination, but I've got to be honest, I can tolerate him better than I thought I'd be able to. He's been surprisingly civil and he's carrying his share of the work, so I'm not one to complain." I said firmly, hoping that that could be the end of it. Fred didn't agree.

"Bloody hell, you're not coping with it. He's brainwashed you." He said, joking, but not looking too pleased. "But seriously, if that's you being honest, maybe you should start lying more, because how you could be getting along with that slimy git is beyond me. Care to explain?" He said, his voice accusatory. I glanced down at the ground. This was not how I wanted our excursion to the kitchens to go.

"Look, let's just drop it. Let's go to the kitchens; you said you wanted to eat." I mumbled, embarrassed at being put on the spot. Fred shook his head.

"I'm not hungry anymore. So, what is it about _Cole Sanderson _that makes him so tolerable?" Fred pressed, frowning. I got kind of annoyed at Fred's nosiness. What was his deal?

"Look, there's nothing of it. What, are you angry that my detentions aren't as miserable as you'd hoped they'd be?" I accused. Offense can sometimes be the best defense.

"No, I just don't want you to start thinking that you can be friends with him." Fred intoned condescendingly. I raised an eyebrow.

"Excuse me? Who are you to tell me what to do? I'll be friends with whoever I want thank you very much." I snapped. Fred growled.

"Have you forgotten what a git he was when you used to be friends with him? I hoped that would be lesson enough for you! And anyway, I thought you said you weren't friends with him!" He countered.

"No, I haven't forgotten." I said, my voice raising. Fortunately, we weren't in a main corridor so students having a late dinner didn't see our shouting match on the way back from their meal. "However, I do know that people change. Are you the same person you were three years ago? And I'm not friends with him, but I'm just saying, I'll be friends with whoever I want."

"Don't be thick. He's still the same jerk he was back then, and you want as little to do with him as possible."

"Don't call me stupid! And don't tell me what to do either!" I yelled.

"I will tell you what to do as long as you don't know what's best for you!" He shouted back.

"Oh, and I suppose you think you _do _know what's best for me." I laughed harshly. He glared.

"Yes, I suppose I do!"

"Oh, don't make me laugh!" I said, laughing mockingly anyway. "Why do you care so much anyway?" Fred didn't say anything. He just stood there, silent, his dark blue eyes glaring at me furiously. I glared back at him, best I could. Then, before I knew what was happening, Fred's lips were pressed furiously against mine. His hands gripped the back of my head and neck firmly, but gently. At first, I tried to pull away in surprise, but a second later, all of my anger and resent vanished, my brain busy telling me a single fact over and over again.

_Fred is kissing you._

Then, I began to kiss him back. Fred and I seemed to have subconsciously moved back into an alcove next to a statue of Selbert the Severe and I was immediately glad for this privacy because although I had kissed a few boys before, none of those times had been like this.

You know those books where the heroine finally gets kissed by the guy of her dreams and she describes how absolutely perfect it was? I know it's corny, but that's what kissing Fred was like. Everything else seemed to disappear and it was just me and Fred. He kissed me gently, but passionately at the same time. His lips placed themselves perfectly over mine and his hands had moved from my neck to my back pressing me against him. My arms were wrapped around his shoulders and I savored every moment. It was perfect.

That was when I realized exactly how tired I had become over the past couple days. It came from a mix of little sleep, mental stress from classes (despite it being the beginning of a new school year) and now the emotional stress coming from my argument with Fred and the sudden change of interaction with him. If my mouth hadn't been preoccupied right then, I would have yawned and not been able to stop.

Realizing just how draining of energy Fred's kiss was, I tried to push away (as sad as it made me- there goes my brain, being all logical again). Fred, feeling this, immediately drew away. He stared at me, wide-eyed, no emotion in his face whatsoever. I tried to say something, but I was at a lost for words, so me, being the idiot that I am, just stood there and stuttered like a fool.

"I-…uh-…well-…was that-…" I stammered and for several moments, Fred just stared at me and shook his head.

"I'm sorry, that was inappropriate. That wasn't okay." he said and turned, stepping out of our corner and half-running out into the hallway. I stepped into the corridor and looked the way Fred had gone. I could see him striding down the hallway and back the way we had come.

"Wait, Fred!" I called, but he just kept walking, as though he hadn't heard me. I slumped down to the floor and gazed at the ground and after several moments I saw a glistening tear slide down from my cheek and onto the stone floor.

About an hour later, I was heading down to the dungeons, my eyes blotchy from crying. I was frantically trying to get them to look normal because I didn't want to raise a scene in front of Cole. I hadn't gone back to the common room yet because there was a chance that Fred had gone back there and I wasn't ready to face him, or the humiliation that would come when we came face to face. I know, aren't I brave?

When I got to the dungeon, I was already several minutes late. Even so, I stopped outside the door and took several deep breaths, trying to calm myself. I wasn't sure how I looked, but I felt like I looked okay and with that, I walked into the dungeon.

Snape was standing there, glaring at me as soon as I entered and he didn't seem to notice anything wrong, but then, even if he had, I doubt he would have cared. Cole on the other hand, when he looked up and saw me, gave me a strange look and I guessed that he knew I had been crying.

Snape took our wands (mine with a little more distaste might I add, as I was a Gryffindor and Cole a Slytherin) and swept out of the dungeon like a great bat in his billowing black cloak. As soon as he was gone, I did a quick scan of the room.

"Alright, want did you want to work on first?" I said, struggling to keep the tremble out of my voice. I had thought I was doing a pretty good job. Cole, on the other hand, did not.

"Rachel, what's wrong?" he asked, walking over to me, obviously concerned. The part of me that wasn't bitter about what had just happened with Fred was touched. I mean, Cole and I hadn't really even been getting along for that long. He was under no obligation to care how I felt.

"Nothing, I just want to get this detention finished and hopefully we won't have to come back." I said, trying to hide a sniffle. I walked around the room and tried to figure out what we were supposed to clean next. I was having difficulty finding stuff and I began to think that Snape was just keeping us here to spite us. Then I felt a hand on my shoulder and Cole spun me around gently.

"I'm sorry, but you can't expect me to believe a lie as pitiful as that one. Look, I can see that something is bothering you. Why don't you talk to me about it? You'll feel better." He assured, smiling comfortingly. I didn't know why, but I really wanted to tell him. I knew I could tell Katie and Sarah later, but I just really wanted to talk to Cole. All thoughts that he might just be tricking me for whatever reason were swept from my head. Sure, up until a couple of days ago we hated each other, but he'd been a good friend since then, and his eyes told me that he really wanted to know, that he was concerned. Finally, after several moments of looking at him, I nodded. Cole sat me down on the stone floor and sat across from me. Then I recounted what had happened, everything. How I'd had feelings for Fred for years and how I was getting hopeful how he might feel the same, and about the flirting, and then, about tonight's kiss. Then, about how he'd run away after he'd kissed me. Cole listened intently, not interrupting me once. When I finished he spoke.

"That douche." He said, shaking his head in disbelief. I stared at him.

"No, no Fred's not a douche. He was probably just confused, I mean, I kinda pushed him away." I said, hugging my knees to my chest. Cole shook his head fervently.

"No, I don't care. He kissed you, right? Well, only a douche would argue with you, kiss you, just stop suddenly, not explain anything to you and then run away. He's entirely in the wrong here. Take my word for it, I'm a guy and I have complete sympathy for inexcusable behavior from other guys, but when I say he shouldn't have done it, you know he shouldn't have." He smiled. I laughed slightly. As I had been telling my story, I'd started to tear up again, but now I was starting to stop.

"So what should I do?" I asked.

"Well honestly," Cole began heavily. "I think you already know the answer. Look, you know I've always disliked Fred and this is just proof that he isn't worth it. He just proved that he's unreliable. You need to just forget about him. I get from what you told me that you liked him a lot, and it's probably going to hurt for a long time, but eventually you will recover and you'll find someone worthwhile." He said solemnly, but he genuinely looked like he believed every word of it. Guys weren't supposed to be this knowledgeable about relationships. How was he better at it than me? Maybe he was gay. Haha, no I knew that wasn't true; I'd heard from someone that he'd had several girlfriends before but still it was weird how logical he could be about it all. We were silent for a while. We sat there, staring off into space and that was when I wondered what had happened between us. We used to be the best of friends, and if he could be this understanding, this good of a friend now, what had happened? Had it been me?

"Cole, what happened between us?" I asked, staring sullenly at the ground.

"Hmm?" he looked up, his train of thought broken.

"Why haven't we been friends all this time? Why were you so mean to me in our third year?" I asked. He sighed.

"Rachel, are you sure you want to talk about this now?" he said, frowning in confusion.

"Yes." I responded resolutely.

"Honestly Rachel, I really liked you in third grade. We were really close and I felt like I knew you better than I knew myself back then. I was sure that you must feel the same way, because being around Slytherins all the time obviously inflated my head a bit. But I was wrong; you didn't like me and when you turned me down, it hurt. I've always been a very proud person Rachel, and getting turned down by you was painful, especially because I liked you so much. I knew I wouldn't be able to bear being around you anymore especially because I was so angry at myself for feeling as hurt as I was. What I said was a mistake, but by the time I had realized that, it was too late to take it back. I could see that you were just as happy without me in your life and my pride wasn't about to let me admit to you that I still wanted to be friends. So when I got the opportunity to show you that I wasn't such a bad person, during these detentions you see, well, I jumped at it. I thought that without your friends discouraging you from me, you might be a little more open to being friends again. You've got to understand, you didn't do anything wrong. It was my fault." He finished morosely. I was shocked. I hadn't imagined that those feelings of regret had been swirling around inside him all this time when I'd thought he hated me. When I looked at him, he also looked as though he were struggling not to cry. I crawled over next to him and sat down. Then I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him into a hug, trying to comfort him. He laughed sarcastically.

"Guys aren't supposed to admit when things hurt like that. You must be severely disappointed." I shook my head.

"No, it reminds me that you're still the same person I used to be friends with. I want to be friends again, if you want to." I said. He hugged me back.

"Of course I do." He said earnestly. We sat there for a little bit, and eventually, we both felt ready to stand up. We laughed and hugged again. You might be asking if this hugging was weird, or if I felt awkward after having just kissed Fred, but it wasn't anything like that. He was just the friend he had been back when we were 12 and I can't even begin to tell you how good that felt.

A moment later Snape swept back into the dungeon. We'd been talking for longer than I thought. He quickly inspected our work and nodded.

"Very good. You won't have to come back if you both stay out of trouble." He sneered and I was really annoyed. That ass, he had just kept us another night to spite us. We hadn't done any cleaning whatsoever and now it was more passable than last night! How does that work out?

Cole and I left the dungeons and when we were in the Entrance Hall I turned towards him and gave him another quick hug.

"Thanks for being such a great friend." I said before dashing up the stairs, eager to get to bed and leave this whole messy week behind me.

It's funny, I know how uncomfortable that evening in the potions room was and I can only begin to imagine how bad it was for Cole, but the funny thing is, it's exactly the vulnerability we both felt that night that allowed us to rekindle our friendship.

**So, what do you think? All in all, not one of my worse chapters I think. However, that doesn't excuse me not having updated in so long. I'm so sorry about that and I really will try to be better. Thanks so much to all of you who have ever updated, I really appreciate hearing from you guys! So, to anyone who hasn't given up on me, please review!**

**Concerning a review I got on the last chapter: I was told that some of the music I mentioned when Cole and Rachel were discussing their tastes in such music hadn't technically been released yet in the time that this story takes place as Harry apparently goes to Hogwarts during the 1990's. I recognize that this is very true and I hadn't noticed it when I was writing that chapter. However, I'm not going to go back and change it, because the time that it would take me to change it is time that could be spent writing the next chapter and it isn't a huge part of the plot. However, if it's really bothering some of you out there, I guess I can go change it if you really want me to. I just wanted to thank the reviewer and if I slip up like that again, please let me know because then I can be on the lookout in the future. Thanks for your review!**

**Until next time!**

**Elwyn**


	9. Chapter 9

**Alright, here's part nine! ******** This part's a little bit longer I think to make up for the long lull before the last chapter I wrote. I'm going to try to get one more part out before I go back to school, but I can't make any promises. However, I'll do my best and although things might get a little slow during the school year, I still plan on updating, so please be patient with me! Alright, go read it now.**

**Disclaimer: Question: **_**True or False, Elwyn owns Harry Potter.**_

_**Answer: Sadly enough, False, Elwyn does NOT own Harry Potter.**_

Honestly, the next few weeks weren't really all that bad. That evening when I went to bed, although I felt better after talking to Cole, I still thought I'd be in for a rough one. However, somehow my mind was coping with it. It pushed thoughts of Fred out of the way and replaced them with other things and it was in that way that I was able to get by.

I told my friends what had happened, although I left out what Cole had told me about why we had spent the past several years hating each other. They didn't need to know, all they needed to know was that he and I were now friends. I must say, they weren't pleased about it.

"So you traded Fred in for Cole? Kinda of sounds like a step backwards to me." Sarah said, a little miffed because 'I was being so foolish'. Neither of my friends believed that Cole had changed. However, I just ignored it; I knew if I gave them time they would come around.

Fred was acting like I didn't exist, which hurt. I'd always wanted a relationship between us to work out, but even if it didn't, I'd wanted us to always be friends. However, Fred didn't approach me once. During History of Magic, we didn't talk at all and he took notes, which I always thought was impossible in that class except for Hermione Granger. But I decided that if Fred didn't want to know me anymore, than I definitely didn't want to know him. Convincing myself of that was tough, but I managed. Cole was a huge help; with my emotions so jumbled, he acted like a rock, something for me to steady myself on.

The air was not in the least bit clear between me and Fred, so like I expected, George and Lee kept their distance too. I didn't think that they were angry at me, but their loyalty to Fred was stronger than it was to me.

Dealing with all of this might have been easier though if I had known exactly what Fred was angry at me for. All I had to go on was my perception of what had happened and honestly, my mind was a little baffled. I couldn't imagine what he was angry about. I hadn't said anything rude to him (at least, not after the kiss) and I hadn't turned him down. But Fred was angry about something, and what it was, I had no idea.

But, I didn't care. Fred didn't really seem to be all that affected by our fight, so I figured, why should I be? I wasn't really. But I did kind of want to know what I had done, so I decided I would have to find out.

I was sitting in the common room with Sarah and Katie working on homework (I was free from detention now so I could do it later in the evening with my friends) and Fred, George and Lee were bent over one of the tables in a corner of Gryffindor Tower, which was weird because normally they were loud and raucous, trying to cook up their next scheme. I suspected they were working on how to enter the Triwizard Tournament though they were underage. The delegations from other schools were supposed to be arriving in only a few weeks so they were intently trying to guess how they could trick the impartial judge.

Through the evening, I kept an eye over in their corner. I didn't want to go over when Fred was there, so I waited until either George or Lee or both were alone. Finally, Fred seemed to need to go upstairs to his dormitory so he jumped up and went upstairs. As soon as he was out of sight up the spiral staircase, I cautiously crept over to where his friends were. They looked up when they saw me approaching and George raised an eyebrow.

"Alright Rachel," he said as soon as I sat down. "What's going on with Fred?" A little stung by his accusatory tone, I replied coolly.

"As his twin, I had hoped you would tell me."

"Look, all I know is that after he came back from going to the kitchens with you, he's seemed kinda out of it, and you guys haven't spoken in days." He said, no trace of joking in his face, a strange sight for me, someone familiar with the Weasley's twins. I was about to answer when I hear a door close from the tower where Fred had gone.

"Listen, we don't have time to talk about this now, Fred won't want to see me when he comes back. We'll need to talk later, alone." I said quickly. Lee and George nodded in agreement.

"We'll get him to leave. We can probably guarantee about ten to fifteen minutes." Lee told me, glancing at George who nodded in confirmation. I nodded and scurried back to my spot with Sarah and Katie. Both girls gave me odd looks, but I ignored them, listening intently to the corner where I had just been.

"Oi, Fred, Hermione was just here and said that McGonagall was looking for you." George said to his twin.

"What for?"

"Apparently Snape told her that you transfigured all the shrunken heads on the shelves in his classroom to look like him in Neville's grandmother's stuffed vulture hat, you know, like that boggart Lupin taught the thirdies with last year." He said smoothly. I almost burst out laughing, but I was able to stifle it into a soft chuckle just in time. Fred laughed too, but it didn't have quite the same ring to it that I knew.

"As great of an idea as that is, you know I did no such thing. But we probably will now, so maybe he's got the right." I heard Fred say.

"Nah, don't deprive McGonagall of the right to yell at you when you deserve it. You'd better go set her straight." Lee advised. Fred shrugged and stood up, walked across the room and exited through the portrait hole. As soon as he was gone, I dashed back over.

"Okay, that was bloody brilliant!" I said in between laughs. George and Lee smiled appreciatively.

"Thanks, but let's get started, he won't be long and we'd better hope McGonagall doesn't come with him. So, what happened?" George said, clearly concerned about his brother. I sighed and told them how I'd been starting to get along with Cole (when I told them this, they frowned, but let me finish) and how Fred and I had started to argue and then how Fred had kissed me. I left out how much I'd enjoyed it, I felt like that might be a bit too much information. When I finished, I looked at them and they stared at me, kind of bemused.

"I always thought he liked you, but he'd never admit it." Lee said, clearly surprised at his correct conjecture. I snorted derisively.

"Sure, I can tell he must like me a whole lot. Being cold and distant to me, yeah that's super endearing." The two ignored me.

"Well, I must say, I don't blame him for being a little angry. Are you seriously now friends with Sanderson?" George said nonplussed. I glared.

"Yes, as a matter of fact I am. And I hoped that you wouldn't react in the same stupid way Fred did but if you're going to start telling me who I can be friends with, maybe you should just start ignoring me too." I snapped. Merlin, Cole wasn't a bad person! George held up his hands in surrender.

"Alright, alright, I'm not here to judge. Whatever, as long as you don't start acting like a bitch like he was. Just so we're clear, you can't expect us to tolerate Cole-esque insults from you." I nodded.

"Of course, I wouldn't expect you to. You guys are my friends just as much as Cole is. I'm not gonna just start being a jerk." I said earnestly.

"Alright, that's fine. But now we've got to figure out what's going on with Fred. Because the Cole thing isn't something he'd normally get this mad over and because he snogged you, well I don't think he hates you just in general." George pondered, leaning back into his chair.

"Well, what is bothering him then?" Lee asked, clearly no wiser on this subject than I was. My heart sank.

"He hasn't mentioned anything to either of you?" I asked, dejected. Both shook their heads.

"But don't you worry your head about it." George said easily, smiling. "We'll figure it out. If there's one thing I know about my brother, contrary to what he'd like to think, his mind is not super complex. We just need to get one piece of the puzzle and then we can figure out the rest of it. Fred's brain is kinda like that muggle number game that dad likes, Supopo." He said. I frowned at him. What was Supopo? Lee laughed loudly.

"You git, you mean Sudoku." George rolled his eyes.

"Whatever, it's not like I play it. The point is, you leave the detective work to us, we'll find your answer and let you know." He assured me. I sighed.

"Thanks so much you guys."

"No problem," George said. "I miss back when we'd all hang out together."

I knew Fred would be coming back any moment, so I rushed back to my previous spot next to the fire with Sarah and Katie and tried to finish the essay I was working on. Soon enough Fred came back and I heard him tell George and Lee that McGonagall hadn't been looking for him. I heard a slight pause and then Lee and George started laughing.

"Oh man, we got you!" Lee said.

"Yeah, I can't believe you fell for that." George told him. I knew Fred would roll his eyes and smile good-naturedly.

"Wow, real witty you guys." I heard him say sarcastically. "Yeah, you sure got me. You know, with brains like yours, tricking the impartial judge will be no problem at all." And then they went back to whatever they were working on. I tried to also, but I just couldn't concentrate. Eventually I just gave up and decided I would finish up later and without another word went upstairs to bed.

A couple of days passed with no word from George and Lee, but knew I just had to give them a bit of time. Then, finally, during Charms with the sixth years, I was working on a charm to make objects sing with Angelina when a folded piece of parchment appeared on my desk. I opened it quickly and on it, a short message was written.

_Meet me after class._

_-G.W._

It was from George Weasley obviously, so at the end of class, I waited outside of the door and when everyone had left, George walked over to me.

"Hey Rachel." He said quickly.

"Hey George, so what did you find out?"

"Honestly, not much, and what I did find out, you're not gonna like." He said tentatively, clearly not wanting to explain.

"George, come on, I can handle whatever it is." I told him sternly. He sighed and spoke.

"Alright, well we told him that Sarah had asked us what had happened because you told her. We figured he'd be more likely to tell us if you weren't involved. Anyway, he told us that he hadn't meant to kiss you, it was just a stupid mistake and that he didn't like you like that. He also said that he thinks it would be best if you and he just stayed away from each other for a while." George said and grimaced, as though waiting for me to start shouting. I didn't though. Well, although it hurt, I'd kinda guessed as much. He wouldn't be ignoring me if he wanted to still be friends. I took a deep breath and nodded. George opened his eyes, surprised I hadn't reacted more upset I guess.

"Alright then. Thanks George, I appreciate you going to that trouble." He just looked around awkwardly.

"Look, he's just being a prat. Don't worry, he'll come around." He said. I shrugged.

"Well, maybe if he's going to act this way, it's better if we weren't friends. Just easier for both of us." I said, trying to sound nonchalant. George frowned.

"You don't mean that." He said quietly.

"Yeah, perhaps I don't. But maybe I do. I dunno, I guess we'll see." I said. "I gotta go." George nodded.

"Alright, I guess I'll talk to you later."

"Yeah, see you around."

Several more weeks passed and things started to shift into a state of normality. I went to classes, did homework, hung out with Katie and Sarah and occasionally Cole. I could tell his Slytherin friends weren't happy about our friendship but Cole told me to forget it, it wasn't their business. Come to think of it, my friends weren't too happy either. One evening, I was sitting near the fireplace in the Gryffindor common room with Hermione, Ron, Harry, and Katie (Sarah had already gone to bed).

"So, Rachel, I hear you're getting along pretty well with Cole Sanderson." Ron said, trying to sound casual, but I could hear the accuse in his voice. I frowned.

"Who did you hear this from? Is this like huge Hogwarts gossip or something? Must be a slow week for inter-house snogging." I said sarcastically. Hermione laughed. She seemed least bothered by me being friends with Cole and although she and I were never exceptionally close, we still got on alright and I was grateful she wasn't on my back about it like everyone else.

"Well actually, I heard it from Fred." Ron explained. There was no twinge in my heart when I heard his name. I had learned to block all feelings about him, although I still noticed how Ron hadn't avoided mentioning him like Sarah and Katie did. He must not know, and for that I was glad. That was certainly something I did NOT want to be gossip.

"Actually," Hermione said. "It is kind of gossip. I mean, it's not the juiciest out there, but people are still interested to know. The last time a Slytherin and a Gryffindor were friends was apparently you and Cole several years ago and people didn't really count that because you were so young and the prejudice hadn't sunk in yet. But before that, no one can remember." Hermione told us, like she was reciting some fact from a textbook. I stared at her.

"Since when are you in the midst of all this talk?" Harry asked, just as surprised as I was that goody-two shoes Hermione would know about this sort of thing. She rolled her eyes, exasperated.

"Since I shared a dorm with two of the biggest gossips in our year and also since I started listening to this sort of thing when I go to the loo. Though a lot of it is mind-numbing, some of it is pretty interesting." She said matter-of-factly.

"Girls." I heard Ron mutter under his breath. Then he spoke to me again. "So yeah, you guys friends or something now?" he asked, looking disapproving. I sighed, annoyed.

"Yes, we are. What do you want to make of it?"

"Just that there's a reason no one remembers the last time a Slytherin and Gryffindor were friends. They're all scum."

"Well excuse me, Ron Weasley, for not thinking myself too kingly to associate with people who were unlucky enough to be sorted into a house where there is in fact a lot of scum. Because let me tell you, Cole is certainly not scum. In fact, right now you're showing me he's a lot more considerate than you, a mighty Gryffindor. He hasn't once gotten annoyed at me being friends with you guys, so why can't you accept it?" I ranted. Ron looked taken aback and a little sorry.

"Look, I'm sorry I just don't trust Slytherins. Be careful, you may be glad sometime that you were." He warned. I sighed. I knew his heart was in the right place so I told him I would be careful just to get off that topic. I knew though, that I had no reason to distrust Cole.

The next afternoon, was Saturday and I was walking back to Gryffindor Tower after having finished my lunch early, ready to get started on my homework for the weekend. The halls were quiet, as most people still hadn't finished their lunch and it was because of that that I could hear the footsteps coming towards me, around the corner twenty meters down the corridor. Not thinking much of it, I kept walking forward and in several moments, I could tell that it was several pairs of feet and not just once. In several moments beyond that, they turned the corner and I saw who it was. I looked up into the sneering faces of Lance, Marcus, and Damian, Cole's old cronies. I looked past them, ready to ignore them as I usually did, but Damian called out.

"Hey Harrington! We need to talk!" he said sharply, I stopped walking and turned to glare at him.

"Fine, talk. And make it quick, I have somewhere to be." I snapped back.

"Who do you think you are?" Lance growled.

"What's it to you?"

"The last thing we need is some piece of Gryffindor scum distracting Cole from his friends!" Marcus drawled. I raised an eyebrow defiantly. Ignoring the comment about being scum (which I really didn't care about) I responded.

"Last time I checked with Cole, he said we were friends." I said coolly.

"Look, we don't know what you did to him, but there's no way he'd be friends with you if he was in his right mind."

"Look, it's not my fault you guys don't have brains enough to be worth a lump of dragon dung and you have to spend all your time following someone else. Come on, get a life, seriously." I told him, irritated. Seriously, was the whole world against me? Damian drew his wand and pointed it at me. I took a small step backward and unfortunately Damian saw. He smirked.

"You'll pay for that one you little bitch." He snarled.

"We'll see." I said, trying to retain composure and drew my own wand. Although I was confident in my magical ability and significantly less in theirs, it was still three against one. I have to admit, things did not look good for me.

Damian sent a shot of orange light at me. I dodged and danced back a couple steps, trying to get as far away from him and his friends as possible.

"Stupefy!" I shouted, trying to stun him, but he blocked my spell. A beam of red light passed mere centimeters in front of my nose; a disarming spell from Marcus.

"Impedimenta!" I cried, turning on Marcus. My spell made contact, but it would only stay in effect for a short while, but before I could cast a stunning spell, Lance disarmed me and I ducked just in time to avoid a body-bind curse from Damian. I jumped to where my wand had fallen and turned to Damian.

"Tarantallegra!" I shouted and his feet moved into a fast paced polka. He yelled in frustration, and unable to keep his balance, fell over. Then I turned to Lance, who I heard shout "Confringo!", giving me just enough time to dodge with no more than slightly singed robes.

_'They're trying to set me on fire!' _I thought frantically.

"Deprimo!" I countered, a useful little spell that Hermione had taught me. It created a gust of wind and blew Lance about fifteen meters down the corridor and onto the ground. Then a strong force hit me in the back and I was sent sprawling to the floor. I flipped around and saw Marcus, who had recovered from my impedimenta jinx and was now approaching. I quickly turned my wand on him and shouted the first spell that came to mind.

"Expulso!" Luckily for him, I missed and the spell caused the air behind him to explode. Perhaps a little violent, but I didn't know how else to retaliate. They were really going to hurt me! I stood up and blocked a disarming spell from Marcus. Suddenly, I felt a searing pain in my eyes. I couldn't see; there was nothing but a white expanse before me and they felt as though they were on fire. I dropped my wand and covered them, hoping to shield them from whatever caused this pain. It was the Conjunctivitis Curse.

I shrieked, unable to think straight and begged for the pain to stop. Finally, after a short time but what seemed like forever, the pain began to fade. Although my eyesight was slowly returning, it was blurry and distorted. Then, a great force knocked me against the wall, sending shock waves through my bones from the force of the collision. Subsequently, I felt a great heat on my arm. It was getting warmer, starting to hurt and moving my hand to see what it was I found that my robes had caught fire. Without my wand, I quickly rolled over myself to smother the flames. Then, someone's foot came into contact with my ribcage and I yelled out in pain. Then, another jolt of pain on my nose and I heard it crack, then felt the thick blood gush out of my nose. Although I couldn't see, I did hear a soft, menacing voice in my ear, hissing.

"Don't mess with us again." It said, and then I heard three sets of footsteps walking away quickly.

My brain felt fuzzy, and even though my eyesight was beginning to return, things were drifting in and out of focus. I was unable to move, pain coursing throughout my entire body. My mind couldn't focus on anything except the pain, and as it began to lose consciousness, I heard another set of feet frantically running towards me and another voice, one that my disabled mind didn't recognize.

"Damn Rachel, what happened? Don't worry, everything's going to be okay." And as the voice's owner lifted me into their arms, I lost all thought.

**Okay you guys, so what are you thinking. Sorry, I couldn't really resist putting the ambush in the hallway, but if you guys think that's cliché, please let me know so I can avoid stuff like that in the future. In fact if it's so cliché that it bothers you enough, I can go back and write it out if you want me to. Please, I'm writing this story for you guys, my readers, so let me know what you're thinking. It'll be so much easier to write a story you guys like if you give me your thoughts on what I'm turning out. Constructive criticism is perfectly welcome.**

**Also, I'm sorry this chapter is more of a montage of events, but these are the important happenings and I didn't want to have to give you very detail in between.**

**Anyway, I hope you liked it anyway and I'll try to write more soon!**

**Elwyn**


	10. Chapter 10

When I first started to regain consciousness, everything was fuzzy and out-of-focus. As things slowly became clearer, I was able to tell that I was in a dark room. The lights were out and everything was quiet. A soft breeze swept through the vicinity. Heaving a deep breath, a sharp pain jolted through my side, where my ribs were. I groaned softly, trying to clear my head of what had happened. I'd been in the corridor and I'd met someone, yes, that was it. Who was it though? I remembered a scratchy voice… Yeah, it had been Marcus, Lance, and Damian. We'd argued…. Yeah, and we'd gotten into a fight. Oh man, they'd won too. Sure, it was three on one, but still, that was embarrassing.

My sight was returning to me, but my head was throbbing pretty badly, so it took me several minutes to recognize that I was in the hospital wing. Glancing over at my nightstand, I saw a Carolina blue vase filled with daisies. Sitting up gingerly, I saw moonlight streaming in through the window across the room. It was a pale color, turning the stone floor white. My thoughts were interrupted by Madame Pomfrey's shrill voice.

"Oh, wonderful, Miss Harrington. You've finally awoken!" I looked over to see her rushing to my bedside. I looked up at her, and she must have seen the confusion in my eyes for as she was pouring me some medicine (which I seriously hoped was of the painkiller variety) she began to explain.

"You were brought in here and you were pretty badly off. Covered in blood, a broken rib, bad first degree burns… you know, Muggle medicine would most likely not have been able to cure you very well. I fixed you up alright, but you'll have to stay here for a few days more so I can keep an eye on you." Madame Pomfrey said sternly when she saw that I opened my mouth to argue. I knew trying to refute her was no good, and I had more pressing matters on my mind.

"Wait, how long have I been out?" I asked nervously. My mind was so blurry, that made me afraid to hear the answer.

"About three and a half days. But that doesn't matter, don't worry about it. You need rest right now and I won't have you getting worked up over nothing." She said in that brusque manner of hers. I ignored her.

"But wait, who brought me in here? I don't remember much." I admitted, although I did remember someone carrying me here. I could see Madame Pomfrey purse her lips in the dim light, clearly displeased that I wasn't back to resting.

"If I tell you, will you get some relaxation?" she asked, exasperated. I nodded earnestly. "Very well," she said. "I believe it was Cole Sanderson who brought you in. You're lucky he found you when he did. Had you gotten care later, you might not have healed so well. But no matter, you're fine, and now the most important thing is that you get some rest!" she said pointedly. I sighed and leaned back down to my pillow after drinking the vial of blue liquid she handed me. It tasted sweet like honey, but I wasn't focusing on the liquid. My mind was more focused on the fact that it had been Cole who found me. But, as I sunk into my light feather pillow to ponder it, my brain became fuzzy, and within moments, I was in a deep sleep.

I woke up the next morning to the worried faces of Katie and Sarah. When they saw me open my eyes, they squealed happily. I still felt very sore, but the medicine seemed to have done the trick as the pain was dulled.

"Oh my god, you're finally up!" Sarah cheered and she sat down quickly on my bed. "We were so worried about you! What happened! Tell us! It's been killing us!" she said, very quickly. Katie laughed and walked over slowly and then bent down to give me a gentle hug, which I gratefully accepted.

"Don't make her pass out again." Katie said.

"No, it's alright, I'm feeling much better. But honestly, I don't even remember too much of what happened myself. Just the bare minimum, and even then it's blurry." I said matter-of-factly. Katie looked unsurprised, but Sarah looked kind of disappointed.

"Don't worry, if I remember, you'll be the first to know. It was just a corridor brawl, one that I lost pretty badly, might I add." I said bitterly. Katie frowned.

"But who did you get into a fight with? A lot of people seem to have heard about what's happened, but no one seems to know the true version." She said.

"And even if they did know," Sarah added. "They're not going to be too eager to let everyone know that they know, because that would mean they probably had something to do with it. Everyone thinks what happened is horrible. Except for the Slytherins of course, but everyone knows they're heartless." She told me. The ambiguity of the situation was intriguing.

"So what's the rumor? What does everyone say happened?" I asked, laughing slightly. People at Hogwarts were always so sure they knew the real story when in truth it usually just keeps getting wilder and wilder beyond belief. Sarah tried to feign ignorance.

"Um not sure. I haven't really paid attention, I've been too worried about you." she said, not meeting my eyes. "You Katie?" she said, turning to my friend. Katie shook her head and looked out the window. I raised an eyebrow skeptically.

"You're both terrible liars, you know that? I told them. Katie sighed softly.

"Alright. Well, the most common, and honestly the most likely story is that it was Cole." She said quickly. I gaped at her.

"But-, wha-, why?" I asked, appalled. Sarah, who was now standing, shifted uncomfortably.

"Well," she began. "Gryffindor-Slytherin friendships are naturally going to be doubted, and your history with Cole isn't really the cleanest of issues. I mean, when you guys stopped being friends back then, he was pretty furious. People think this is revenge." She said simply. I almost laughed, but humorlessly. I mean, it really wasn't all that funny.

"So people think that Cole's been planning his revenge for three years, all leading up to this? Come on, no teenage boy has that much focus!" I said. Katie and Sarah shrugged.

"Well, how do you know he doesn't? You said you don't really remember it." Sarah said. I shook my head.

"I do remember that it was Damian, Marcus, and Lance. You know, those Slytherins? I'm sure of it. And anyway, according to Madame Pomfrey, Cole's the one that brought me here. Apparently I wouldn't have healed so well if he hadn't found me as soon as he did." I told them. Sarah's eyes bugged out and Katie looked skeptical.

"Look, that may all be true," she said. "But maybe everything's not what it seems. I mean, Cole's been friends with those three forever. Maybe he set it up." She said. I shook my head stubbornly, shocked that she could even think something like that.

"No. He wouldn't do that. I'm telling you, he's not a bad guy." I persisted. Sarah chimed in.

"But wait, that could fit. I mean, how else did he find you so quickly? Everyone was supposed to be at lunch then, and that's not even a well traveled corridor. There are just some things that don't add up." She said, looking apologetic. I, the stubborn person that I am, still refused to believe it.

"I just don't think he would have done that. I mean, that's a lot for just a petty revenge. And I'm telling you, he's definitely changed. Look you guys, I really appreciate you guys coming to visit, but I've got a lot to think about, and I'm tired." I told them truthfully. They both nodded in unison and started to move towards the door. I leaned back on my pillow as Katie turned around.

"Look Rachel, just be careful. Those of us who were against your friendship with Cole just didn't want you getting hurt. Not long after, this happens. Think about what you're gonna do carefully, because this time was a close enough call." She warned ominously. I nodded, not accepting it, but doing it just to keep her happy.

"By the way," she said. "When you're back up, we're going to lead an ambush on Lance, Marcus and Damian, as payback. Don't miss it. It'll be the best." She said, grinning. I laughed and nodded again as she walked out, leaving me alone to my thoughts.

I wouldn't have woken up then if it weren't for the strange noise that interrupted my sleep. Squinting through my eyes and allowing them to focus, I could make out two forms. It was George and Lee singing 'For She's a Jolly Good Fellow'. I laughed and shook my head. They were loud and off-key, but I still appreciated it. When they saw that I had woken up, they both cheered and high-fived.

"I told you it would work!" George said, beaming proudly. I heard Sarah's voice.

"George! She was sleeping! That was really rude." She scolded.

"Yeah well, she'll be so happy to see us, she won't even care." He responded. "Right?" he asked looking at me. I couldn't stop smiling.

"See, she's fine." Lee told her. Sarah shook her head. George bounded over to me.

"Rachel, we're so glad you're okay." He told me earnestly. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine. A little annoyed, but in general okay. I'm healing so that's good. But didn't we decide it'd be too awkward for us to be friends, what with Fred and all?" I asked, confused.

"For all we care, Fred can go be a Slytherin. Well no, we'd have to kill him then. But, we really don't care. Fred's being a git. When Katie told us you'd woken up, we had to come see you. We're your friends too after all." He said, smiling softly. I was surprised. You'd be hard pressed to find a time when either Weasley twin wasn't joking about something, and this was one of those rare times that you really appreciated because of their scarcity. I smiled back.

"Thanks you guys." I said. I opened my mouth to say something else, but before I could, I was interrupted by another voice.

"Rachel's awake, right? I only heard just now." A low voice said, concern within its ring. Looking over to the doorway, I saw the dark hair, ice blue eyes, and tall figure of Cole. When he saw me, a look of relief washed over his face. He walked swiftly over to me; George looked disapproving, but stood aside.

"Oh my god, Rachel. I'm so sorry. I can't believe this happened." He said, his face clearly showing that he was berating himself harshly.

"No, I'm fine now. Don't worry about it." I assured him, trying to sound firm. I'm not gonna lie, it was super awkward with Katie, Sarah, Lee, and George standing in the room. Cole obviously sensed that I felt this way, because he turned to them and spoke.

"Look you guys, I recognize that you have as much right to be here as I do. I'm really sorry, but could you give me and Rachel a minute alone?" He asked politely. Still, despite Cole's manners, my friends looked reluctant. I stared at them pointedly. Katie caved first.

"Oh all right." She said rolling her eyes and dragging Sarah out of the room. George and Lee slowly followed. Cole turned back to me.

"How are you feeling?" he asked quietly, not meeting my eyes.

"Fine. Madame Pomfrey fixed me up right and I should be up in a few days." I told him as cheerfully as I could.

"What happened?" he asked.

"To be honest, I don't really remember the details all that clearly. They're slowing returning, but there are still a lot of pieces missing." Cole was staring at a spot behind me, clearly avoiding looking me in the eyes.

"I suppose you've heard the rumors. That it was me." He said solemnly. I nodded.

"Yeah, I've heard em."

"And?"

I frowned. "And I think that's ridiculous. I know for a fact it wasn't you. You wouldn't do that, and I do remember that much." Cole heaved a deep sigh of relief.

"I was so worried you were going to blame me. I mean, I know our friendship is unorthodox and our history's rocky." He admitted, finally looking straight at me. "But, who was it? Do you remember?"

"Yeah, it was Marcus, Damian and Lance." I said.

"Those bastards." Cole muttered in disbelief.

"You didn't guess?" I asked, smiling wryly. Cole laughed.

"Well actually, I didn't have to. They've been bragging about it to all of Slytherin house. But no one believes them. I mean, even my house recognizes that you're a good witch and no thinks they would have had the talent to pull it off." He laughed. I laughed at that too, touched that the Slytherins respected (that's not really the right word, right? Eh well) me that much.

"They must have been so disappointed. But no, I mean, I probably could have taken one or two of them, but three was asking a bit much."

"I'm so sorry. I mean, I was friends with them. There's no way I am after this, but I know they sort of followed me for a couple of years. I couldn't stand to think I had this sort of influence on them." He said dejectedly. I shook my head impatiently.

"No way. Blood-thirstyness is something that evolves in the family. Either you have it or you don't. Few actually develop it." I said, shifting to a more comfortable position to talk.

"Since when are you an expert on this sort of thing?" Cole teased.

"Since ever!" I said, as though it were obvious. Cole didn't say anything and the air fell silent. Soon, I spoke again.

"I heard from Madame Pomfrey, actually, that you were the one who found me and brought me here." I said, this being my turn to avoid his eyes. I knew I would have to bring this up. This wasn't just something I could ignore. Cole was silent for a moment.

"I-. When I saw you there, I didn't know what to do. I was just…shocked. It was horrible. I mean-, I've never seen anyone looking so…broken. Eventually I came to my senses, but I still couldn't believe it." He said quietly. There was another lull.

"Thank you Cole. I owe my recovery to you. It might have been a while before anyone found me, and had that happened, there could have been lasting damage. Just, thank you." I said, leaning forward to Cole, who was sitting on my bed, and hugging him. He seemed surprised at this sudden motion, but then hugged me back.

"What else could I have done?" he asked. It was rhetorical, of course. We sat there for a while.

"So what now?" I asked.

"Well isn't it obvious? I've got three murders to plan now." Cole said grinning slyly. I laughed.

"Nah, don't do that." I said.

"Why? Come on. You're a great person, but don't tell me you don't want to get back at them."

"No it's not that. Of course I'm gonna get back at them. But Katie's apparently planning something against them and if you killed them, then I wouldn't have the pleasure." I said. Cole laughed.

"Alright, fair enough. Count me in though." I nodded in consent, smiling happily. I couldn't believe that a month ago, I had despised Cole. Now, I couldn't imagine not being friends with him.

So I was up and about in about three days. When I first stepped back into Gryffindor Tower, I was greeted by a round of applause, which was awkward but still felt good. And lots of people came up to tell me how sorry they were about what happened and say how scummish Slytherins were. I did get a couple 'That's what you get for being friends with Sanderson' and though I tried to tell people that it wasn't his fault, all I got in return were skeptical looks and raised eyebrows. All in all, I was treated like a martyr, which was all very flattering, but when you were trying to catch up on days worth of missed work, was kind of obnoxious. Hermione had been good enough to bring by some of my work while I was in the hospital wing and even helped me out with some of it, but I hadn't been able to finish it all yet and doing so was proving very difficult with the constant distractions.

After a wide-eyed second year boy came to ask for my story of what had happened (and I had impatiently told him that then was not the time) I was considering just heading upstairs and doing it in my dorm where silence might be found. However, when I looked up to glance around the common room, I noticed someone else walking towards me. I didn't move for although this was someone that I most certainly did not want to talk to, I couldn't deny that at the same time I desired nothing more than just that.

It was Fred.

**Alright, so finally, there's the next installment. You're gonna hate me when I tell you this, but I've had most of it written for a while, I just wasn't sure how I was gonna wrap it up and then finding time to actually write it was a separate matter. But, here it finally is. I know it's kinda devoid of action, but I think the previous chapter makes up for that. You might think this is kind of a filler chapter, and in a way it kind of was, but it still has a purpose and I needed to include it. Still, I like it and I think it turned out well. But that's not the only thing that's important. What do you guys think? Please, any feedback is welcome, good or bad. Your reviews really help me know how I should write this and they're greatly appreciated. I kinda know where this is gonna go, but that plan may not last long, so please, any ideas, bring em on!**

** Okay, enough of me talking, there you have it. I'll try to have the next chapter up soon, but you guys know me by now. I shouldn't make any promises.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Alright you guys, sorry about the delay, but the holidays are a busy time for me. I know I should be better about updating, but to be honest, there's a lot going on in my life right now, and it's tough to deal with. So, I'm really glad you guys are reading and I'm really glad you like my story, but to be honest, when things are as difficult as they are now, writing really isn't my top priority. Don't worry, I'll see this through to the end, but you'll have to be patient. **

**Also, I appreciate how when you guys ask for more, you're nice about it. You guys have been great, I'm merely trying to explain my own shortcomings. So I'll let you read now, a lot goes on in this chapter. **

**We've had a lot of Cole previously, so I don't think he's in this chapter at all, but it focuses more around Fred. Also, just a head's up, the beginning of the chapter isn't as light hearted, but it picks up around the middle and towards the end. I think this chapter is a bit longer to try and make up for my delay. Just a warning, the end is a bit rushed because I wanted to post and let you guys read it. Enough of my blabbering, go read!**

**Disclaimer: Actually, for Christmas, I got Harry Potter. Nope, that's not true. Oh well, it's still not mine, but at least parts of this particular story are.**

Fred approached me and sat down next to me on the sofa. I avoided looking at him and stared blankly at the carpet. Fred stared into the fire that blazed in the grate I sat near.

"So, you're back." He stated simply.

"Yeah." I nodded, not really knowing what else to say. We sat in silence for a while. I refused to be the one to break the silence, since it was hard for me to know where our relationship stood. To be honest, I missed him a lot. I missed laughing with him and talking with him, but I wasn't about to let him know that, not after that whole ordeal we'd gone through. I was still pissed and it was too complicated.

"You feeling better? I'm so sorry about what happened." Fred said after a while.

"Yeah, I am feeling better and don't be sorry. It wasn't your fault." I told him, still avoiding looking at him.

"Yeah, I guess that's true. You know, a lot of people say it was Sanderson's fault." He said, trying to act nonchalant, but I picked up on what he was getting at. I sharply looked up at him.

"Oh come on Fred! Are you really going to be that stupid?" I cried incredulously, not believing how ridiculous he was being. He looked at me and frowned.

"Excuse me?"

"You know what? No, you're not excused! That's unacceptable. We haven't spoken in weeks and now the first thing you say to me after I come back from the hospital wing is a horrid accusation against one of my best friends. Not only are you wrong, you're tactless!" I cried. Fortunately, the common room was beginning to empty, so there were less people to notice the spat occurring over in the corner. Fred opened his mouth to speak, looking shocked at my outburst, but I decided I wasn't finished talking to him.

"No, you listen to me! I'm tired of trying to figure you out! You're one of my best friends, we're supposed to understand each other but this whole year you've been acting weird. I want to be friends with you, but as long as you're going to be a selfish jerk about Cole, then I guess we can't be. He doesn't have any problems with me being friends with you, so why is it a problem on this end? He's a gentleman and you're behaving terribly. I don't know how you even have the right to dislike him. I know for a fact he wasn't behind me getting attacked and you have no idea how horrible he felt about it. He's trying to make my life easier but you seem intent on the opposite! Do you have any idea what you've been putting me through?" I said, on a roll now. It felt so good to get all of these feelings out. I wasn't shouting, which was good because I didn't want to attract attention, but I poured as much venom and malice as I could into my angry whisper. Fred looked like he wanted to say something, but I started ranting again before he could get a word in edgewise.

"No, of course you don't, or you wouldn't have done it. Let me tell you something. I liked you a lot at the beginning of this year, and you were being really friendly and kind to me. I thought I might have had a chance! But clearly I was wrong. You don't really care about me, you just care about me being friends with a Slytherin. And then that evening, in the corridor, you kissed me and I was so happy. I thought things couldn't get better. And they didn't. They got worse. After that, you just shunned me. You must really care a lot about making me feel miserable to put that effort into it. Well, in case you had any doubts, I'll set your mind at ease. You did a pretty bang-up job. So now, after being attacked in the hallway by a good friend's friends, you must have thought I wasn't dealing with enough. No, life was going just a little too well for me, so it was really considerate of you to come over to try and fix that by ANTAGONIZING me about being friends with someone who's been kinder than you have. Just try to explain your way out of that one." Fred just stared at me, no trace of the laugh that was normally splattered across it. He looked a little shocked.

"Wait, you liked me?" he asked in wonderment. I rolled my eyes.

"Is that all you heard from what I said? Whatever, I don't care. Yes, are you happy? I LIKED you. A lot. Does that make you feel better? Now you can go and have a good laugh." I snarled. Fred looked taken aback.

"No, don't you understand? When I kissed you, I meant it. I thought you didn't like me, and I thought you wouldn't want anything to do with me!" he said earnestly. I laughed shrewdly.

"I guess I forgot how polite you usually were in conversation. Don't try to make me feel better. It doesn't really matter anyway." I responded coldly. Fred looked up into my eyes, seemingly a little worried.

"No, I'm not lying! I really mean it! I liked you! It took me a while to realize it, but I did. And, I dunno, I guess I was a little-, not jealous, but I felt weird-, knowing that you and Cole had been so close and now you were starting to be friends again. Feeling like that kinda spurred me to do something reckless. That was why I kissed you all of a sudden; it wasn't for lack of feelings." He said, holding his hands out helplessly. He seemed sincere and my anger was beginning to abate, but I eyed him suspiciously.

"If you liked me, then why did you run away?" I asked. Fred stared down at the ground again.

"I-, I don't know." He mumbled. "I guess I just felt terrible that I'd just jumped at you like that, and then you kinda pushed away, so I thought I'd done something wrong. Then, you really seemed like you were okay with us not being friends, so I thought you were mad, and then I got mad at myself, and a little at you and everything just…" he trailed off here. I nodded slowly, beginning to understand. I wasn't angry anymore. Merely expressing how I'd felt had helped immensely and then, hearing what Fred was thinking helped me gain perspective. The mistake I'd made was becoming clear and it was this: although Fred was a year older than me, he wasn't an adult. He was still a teenager and probably feeling just as awkward and confused about everything as I was. I couldn't expect more of him than I could have of myself and seeing how confused we both were just reinforced that.

"Please Rachel, you've got to believe me. I really care about you!" he said, his eyes gazing deeply into mine. I looked back at Fred's beautifully shaped face, took a deep breath and sank further back into my cushion.

"Okay." I said. "I believe you." Fred heaved a deep sigh of relief. Then his face broke out into a smile, not his usual mischievous grin, but a real smile of happiness. Then, he leaned closer to me, moving in to kiss me. I pulled away.

"What are you doing?" he asked me, confused. "I thought you liked me." I opened my mouth hesitantly. He waited for me to speak.

"I did, and maybe I still do, but I don't know anymore. I don't want to have to deal with all of that again. I just think I couldn't handle it." I told him honestly. He looked at me, a strange look on his face.

"Rachel, please, that won't happen again. It was just miscommunication between us. You can't tell me that whatever you felt for me doesn't exist anymore."

"Look Fred, I really just don't know. I need time to figure it out, you know, to get my thoughts straight. Can't we just be friends?" I asked. He stared at me for a moment, thinking. For a second, I thought he was going to say no.

"Of course we can, if that's what you want." I mentally sighed with relief. Now, maybe things could go back to normal while I sorted out my thoughts. I nodded.

"Thank you. Now, if you don't mind, it's getting kind of late. I'd really better get to bed, but I'll see you in the morning." I promised, standing up. Fred nodded silently, giving me a friendly smile in response. I made my way to the staircase that led up to my dormitory, but Fred called my name. I turned around.

"Rachel. Just so you know, I won't give up." He said, his eyes glinting like their old, playful selves, his familiar grin back in its place. I smiled slightly and then climbed up, preparing to sleep.

And, Fred didn't give up. Of course, he wasn't obnoxious about it. For the most part, we were able to go back to our normal lives. I didn't think it was possible, but somehow it happened. However, there were slight differences. Fred was a little more obvious with his flirting than he had been at the beginning of the year, a little more suggestive about us starting a relationship. Of course, in public I just laughed it off as though it were normal, but believe me, I picked up on it. And I wasn't sure how I felt about it.

Sure, sometimes I felt like I still liked Fred. I mean, he was funny, nice to me again, and pretty smart when he focused. But, I knew what had happened before, and that just proved the type of drama that could ensue with a relationship with Fred. So, I just let things be for the time.

Anyway, it wasn't too difficult to focus on other things. There was plenty else going on. One morning, there was a crowd around the bulletin board in the entrance hall, so, curious, I pushed my way through the throng to see what all the fuss was about.

_**Attention!**_

**Triwizard Tournament**

**The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrange will be arriving at 6 o'clock on Friday the 30****th**** of October. Lessons will end half an hour early. Students will return their bags and books to their dormitories and assemble in front of the castle to greet our guests before the Welcoming Feast.**

"Awesome!" Sarah said. She had walked downstairs with me and had just read the notice. "I have History of Magic then! Maybe Binns won't bother lecturing because of the shortened class." She said hopefully. I instead, had Charms with the 6th years, which wasn't too bad. All around me, students were milling around with excitement, discussing the upcoming event.

"Man, I'm gonna submit my name, I really think I could win!"

"Do you think there'll be any cute boys from Durmstrang?"

"I hear someone's found a way to trick the impartial judge; think they'll manage it?"

I smiled to myself. Gossip around Hogwarts could get ridiculous. No one would be able to trick Dumbledore. But, nevertheless, I too was excited.

Friday eventually came. The day passed slowly, but last period came and no one could focus during the last lesson. The room was full of whispers and note passing. But, Charms was really easy to hold conversations in, and Flitwick knew what was going to happen this evening, so he was pretty lenient. In fact, he just told us to practice mobility spells and gave the rest of the period to us. I sat with Fred, George, Angelina, and Lee. We just levitated small objects and had them chase each other around the room while we talked.

"So, you guys heard the rumor that someone's got a way to get around the impartial judge?" I asked lazily. Angelina looked up in interest

"Have they really?" she asked.

"Yeah, that'd be us." George said, smiling. "Didn't know that was getting around." he said, seeming pleased.

"Is it true?" I asked. "Have you really figured out a way?" I asked.

"Well, maybe." Lee said. "We may have, but we're not sure. It'll all depend on who the impartial judge is. Or what they are, for that matter." he said. I frowned, confused.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, we thought about it and realized that Dumbledore never actually said it was a person who was picking. It seems natural that it will be, but he's a man of mystery and it wouldn't be unlike him to throw something unexpected our way." Fred said proudly. I laughed at his self-assurance.

"We'll see." I said noncommittally.

"You don't have faith in our awesome abilities!" Fred accused, mock insult in his voice. I laughed again.

"It's not that." I said. "But the fact remains that Dumbledore is one of, if not the, cleverest wizard of all time. And you're-…well…you." I said truthfully.

"You say that like it's a bad thing." George scoffed. I shook my head.

"Like I said, we'll see." I said. It was then that Flitwick dismissed our class. He reminded us to be quick when dropping off our things for the student delegations would be arriving soon.

When I arrived at the grounds, I quickly located Sarah and Katie who had already left our dorm by the time I had gotten there. They were both pushing to get to the front of the crowd, eager for when our guests would arrive. I sighed. Excited as I was, I didn't feel it was worth braving that mass of students. I knew what they would look like. I'd seen people before. Therefore, I had no real need to stand at the front of the group. In fact, I decided that I could probably go watch from by the lake without getting in trouble. Sure it probably wasn't as social as Dumbledore wanted, but one person wouldn't jeopardize the reputation of Hogwarts. With that, I made my way to the shores of the lake. The water swelled whenever the giant squid neared the surface. When I reached my destination, I saw that there was already somebody there. There was no mistaking that flame colored hair.

"Hey Fred." I said casually, stepping next to him, a fair distance from where the rest of the students were. However, I had a clear view for I faced the area they were staring at from a different angle. "What are you doing here?" I asked.

"Well, I kinda guessed you would come here, but I figured you should have some company in case you fall in the lake, klutz that you are." He said smoothly. I was a good thing the light was dimming because I felt a slight pink tinge appear on my cheeks.

"Hey, I'm not that clumsy!" I said defensively. He laughed.

"I've seen many occasions contrary to that statement." He said. I wanted to object, but I didn't. I knew I had tripped my share of times in front of him.

"So the other students are getting here by train, right?" I asked, realizing that I wasn't sure. In fact, I hadn't heard anyone else talk about it. Fred shrugged.

"Dunno, but that seems reasonable I guess." We stood in silence for several seconds. I was about to say something when I was interrupted by a commotion coming from the crowd of people. My gaze followed where several people pointed. Up in the sky, I could barely make out what seemed to be a flying carriage. But it wasn't flying, it was pulled by a herd of winged horses, I saw, as it drew closer.

"That must be Beauxbatons." Fred said. I assumed he was right. Out of the giant carriage stepped a line of female students. I couldn't make them out clearly, but I seemed to be right. There was nothing exciting about them except for the first person to get out. From here, the looked like a female Hagrid. I was thrown through a loop, but decided to question it later, for now the guests were entering the entrance hall. Now all that was left was to wait for the Durmstrang students.

Then, I heard a lot of splashing behind me. At first, I thought the giant squid was having a seizure, but then I turned around and saw a large pole rising out of the depths, followed by a huge ship. It was bizarre, I'd seen muggle clips of boats sinking, but never the opposite. It never occurred to be to press the rewind button and see what it looked like.

The boat moored itself at the dock. Then, a bridge magically appeared and students began to step ashore. They all wore dark burgundy cloaks and were all male, most of them very attractive. They in general seemed to be well built, probably to leave an impression upon the opponents. I won't lie, I've always had a sort of natural attraction to burlier men, so I was mildly pleased. They all huddled around the dock. I could make out the details of this group much clearer than the previous one because I was standing probably ten meters away. The last person to step off the ship was an older man with a dark goatee. Probably their headmaster. He led them off the docks leading them closer to where Fred and I stood. He paused when he saw us and sniffed.

"I supposed Dumbledore sent you two to direct us to the castle? Foolish man, I can see it perfectly easily from here." He said haughtily. I wanted to retort and opened my mouth to, but Fred stomped on my foot, reminding me to hold my tongue. It was probably a good thing too; I didn't want to go insulting the guests as soon as they got here. But still, I didn't like his tone, or his attitude. The man, without another word began to walk up to the castle and his students followed him. Some of them ignored me and Fred, but most looked at us. Some gave me a look of disdain, there were several playful smirks, some kind smiles, and one boy, who upon first glance looked very attractive, winked at me. His friend laughed and pulled him along, saying something in what was probably Russian. I blushed again. When they had all gone, Fred and I followed behind slowly, ready to begin the feast.

"You need to be careful what you say around Dumbledore's guests." Fred warned. I sighed, dejected.

"I know, but he seems like an ass! He can't say stuff like that about Dumbledore!"

"Dumbledore's a big boy; he can take care of himself." I nodded in agreement.

"I guess you're right."

"Anyway, it seems like you have a bit of an admirer!" Fred teased, bumping me with his elbow. Darn, I'd hoped he hadn't noticed that. I might have been imagining it, but I thought I detected a trace of annoyance in Fred's jest. I laughed anyway, trying to play it cool.

"Sure, whatever. Because boys don't ever flirt with girls casually." I said sarcastically.

"Just saying, watch out." Fred laughed. "Because you can't trust those foreigners. They're always up to no good." I pushed him playfully.

"You jerk." We had reached the Gryffindor table by this point. I noted that the Beauxbatons girls had sat at the Ravenclaw table and the Durmstrang boys had decided to sit at the Slytherin table.

(**A/N: Alright you guys, I'm assuming you know how this goes. I'll summarize it vaguely if you need a refresher, but if you're reading this, I'm assuming you're an HP fan. You get the picture. I'm just not up for typing extra stuff needlessly)**

The feast consisted of Dumbledore introducing the guests to us and then unveiling the impartial judge. Fred, George, and Lee had been right; it wasn't a person at all, but an extremely powerful artifact known as the Goblet of Fire. Students would be able to place their names inside the goblet for consideration and it would decide on the participants later. He would prevent underage submissions by drawing an Age Line around the goblet which none could pass over unless they were over age. Then, of course, there was the awesome food. I spent the meal sitting with Katie, Sarah, and some other girl from my house. Ron, Harry, and Hermione sat not too far away and Fred, George, and Lee were farther beyond that. I spent the meal discussing how I'd decided to watch from the lake and laughing a bit at Katie and Sarah who were all a bit ruffled after having been tossed about in that mob. They weren't too happy I hadn't let them in on my plan.

Then, after the feast was over, we stood up and made our way into the entrance hall. A lot of the guests were milling about and I vaguely wondered where they were staying. I was tired from a long day and also the good food so I wasn't really paying attention to my surroundings. That's why it took me a couple seconds to realize someone was calling to me.

"Excuse me. EXCUSE ME MISS!" called a deep voice, smooth as finely polished oak. I turned to see the Durmstrang boy who had winked at me earlier walking towards me. A small group of who seemed to be his friends watched me. Katie and Sarah looked at me in surprise as I hadn't told them about our brief past interaction. I couldn't figure out what he wanted, but I wasn't complaining. The low light from outside hadn't made me incorrect. He was very attractive.

"Yes, can I help you?" I asked politely, smiling a little flirtily. He seemed around my age, so I figured, hey, a little flirting couldn't hurt. He smiled back, his stormy grey eyes flashing playfully.

"Vell, yes, I believe you can." He said, his voice thick with Russian accent. It was so hot. "You see, my friends and I, ve vere arguing. I vos hoping you could clear up our little dispute. Ve have heard that foreign girls find Russians exotic. Is it true?" he asked, smirking. I caught what he was doing. He was flirting with me, I couldn't believe it!

"Well, before I answer that, I'm going to need to know your name." I said craftily. He chuckled softly.

"Vell, aren't you the clever one. Very vell, my name Nikolai Corchevsky." He said. I smiled. It had a nice ring.

"Well Nikolai, my personal answer is yes, we girls do tend to find Russians very exotic, not to mention extremely intriguing." I said, flashing a smile. He returned the smile with his own and another wink.

"I'd do vell to remember that then." He said. I nodded.

"Yes, you would." I agreed, and then turned to walk away.

"Vait!" he called, as I knew he would. You have to always leave em wanting more. I turned and gave him a questioning look.

"Yes?"

"Vot is your name?" I laughed.

"Nope. To find out that, you have to see me again." I told him. He smiled and raised an eyebrow.

"Very vell. I can be patient." He said and he returned to his friends. I watched him go and noted that he had an extremely graceful walk for someone so bulked up with muscle. Then I began to walk towards Gryffindor Tower. Katie and Sarah followed, staring at me. I laughed and told them about what had happened at the lake. They laughed, but then Katie said:

"I've never seen you flirt that well before!" she said. I laughed.

"Thanks. Actually, I'm really only that good with strangers. That's why I was always so nervous around Fred. I knew him too well. I don't know if that makes sense." I said.

"Don't worry, it does. You think you'll see him again?"

"Actually, I'm pretty sure I will. Like him, I can be patient."

**Well, there you have it. What do you think? Please review, I appreciate when you do! Yeah, I kinda left Cole out of the chapter to give you guys a little break from him. Quick question, are the Weasley's OOC at all? I feel like they might not be playful enough, but I'm not sure. It's tough writing someone else's characters. Anyway, I'm personally pretty excited about Nikolai. I know a lot of you want Rachel to end up with Fred, but I'm keeping her options open. I like options. Options are good. Anyway, please review!**

**I always make promises about how I'm gonna try to be better about updating, but then the opposite happens, so maybe if I tell you I'm gonna be bad about updating, I'll be better. Will you be part of my experiment? Let's try it. Okay, I'm probably not gonna update for a while, so be prepared to wait. Alright, let's keep our fingers crossed. Love you guys!**

**Elwyn**


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